Girl Trouble
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: Ivy, in league with an old Gotham villain, has kidnaped Selina Kyle in the hopes of using her to rid the city of it's new menace to crime. A dark avenger the local street thugs are calling Batman.
1. Chapter 1

**Girl Trouble**

**Ivy Pepper has kidnapped Selina Kyle in the hopes of using her to end the menace to Gotham, Batman, once and for all. **

**Bruce is helpless to harm the only woman he has ever loved, even if it means exposing himself as Batman. **

**Disclaimer! I don't own Gotham or Batman franchise. But I like to play with them from time to time. **

1.

~ Bruce was lost in the rosy glasses of nostalgia. In his hands, he held a faded picture strip. One of the old fashioned things that came from a photo booth on the boardwalk. It was years ago, he and Selina were still young. Her short, unruly hair fell around her face perfectly as they both made silly faces at the automatic camera in the little booth.

Bruce had never really acted like that before, but it was okay with Selina. She made him feel like a normal person again. He had forgotten that he could once smile. The young man in the picture looked so happy. Nothing at all like the sullen adult he was becoming. He missed the way it used to be with Selina and the way she always teased him.

That summer had been a good one. Gordon, still young idealistic himself, and had taken them both to the seasonal fair on the boardwalk. His date, a very pretty doctor he called Leigh was with them. She was always smiling and Bruce felt like they might even be mistaken for a real family by the other people there. Gordon wasn't old enough to be his dad, of course. Maybe a really cool older brother if pressed. Selina certainly wasn't like a sister to him either that summer day.

They had quickly ditched Gordon and Leigh, found a bunch of other kids and went swimming.

Selina had kissed him at a bonfire party that night. Gordon had found them and broke up the party just after, but with that kiss, Bruce knew he would always love her. That she would alway be this bright and shinning moment of happiness.

"How were patrols tonight, sir?" Alfred asked.

Bruce jumped slightly and hid the photo strip from Alfred. The butler didn't approve of Selina Kyle from the second he had met her. A few months ago, she had come to stay at Wayne Manor to recover from a fall. Bruce didn't know at the time he had caused that injury himself, when he chased a mysterious cat burglar off a rooftop. That cat burglar was indeed his Selina. She had been staying at his home and so very close to his secret life.

Added to that, her unwitting involvement in a global smuggling ring by one of Gotham's rising crime lords. But all of that was resolved with a clever plan involving the media and the paranoia of the common criminal. Selina was safe and free to start a new life.

It had been heartbreaking to learn that she had never really given up her old ways of stealing to survive, but in the past few months, she had turned things around.

Or so it seemed from the outside.

Bruce had bought an apartment building in the more artistic part of Gotham and given her a very nice loft to live in. He didn't want her living on the streets, stealing to survive. He never wanted that for her. At last, he was able to do something about it.

She wasn't aware of his nightly visits to the roof across her apartment loft. Of looking through her windows from across the street just to catch a glimpse of her. Of how a secret part of him wanted to renounce his life as Bruce Wayne and hide away with her forever there. He could tell no one about that fantasy he entrained. One where he and Selina were a normal couple. Where his parents were still alive, where Selina was never a cat burglar, and where Bruce didn't skulk around Gotham in the shadows.

The nightmare would be over, but he knew it couldn't be.

He hoped, she had put the life of crime behind her for good. Hoped she was happy.

"Fine, Alfred." Bruce said clearing his throat.

"How was class today?" Alfred asked.

The butler set down a tea tray and poured Bruce a cup.

"Boring." Bruce admitted. "I have better things to do than listen to lectures. Most of it I learned in high school anyway."

"Well, we must finish our education." Alfred said comfortingly. "How is Miss Vale?"

"Vicki is a little sore at me." Bruce said darkly. "Those pictures with that model."

"I can't imagine explaining that away, sir." Alfred chuckled.  
"She was a little drunk and she kissed me. I was only helping her to her car." Bruce swore.

"Don't worry, master Bruce." Alfred said. "It takes a long time to meet the one."

Bruce wanted to say that he already met the one, but he kept his lips tightly sealed.

"Well, I'm in no hurry to get married." Bruce said at last. "I've got enough to worry about."

"Penguin?" Alfred asked.  
"Penguin." Bruce agreed. "He runs the Red Triangle Gang and it seems GCPD is powerless to stop it.

"Even Gordon?" Alfred asked. "The man took out most of the organized crime."

"Gordon didn't do it alone." Bruce said darkly. "I have reason to believe Penguin was on the inside, shifting the dynamic and making a run for power."  
"If that's true, Penguin is more dangerous than even the worst of the mob bosses." Alfred said.  
"Gordon always thought so." Bruce said. "Penguin is used to playing both sides, and doing it extremely well."

"You plan to visit him soon, sir?" Alfred asked.

Bruce blew on the hot tea.  
"Intelligence gathering first, Alfred." he said. "I need to know what his weaknesses are. According to Gordon's own records, Penguin was raised by an overprotective mother. She died a few years ago under mysterious circumstances. Gordon says there is no one that Oswald Cobbelpot hasn't betrayed. He managed to be the only survivor of Gordon's purge of organized crime. He won't go down easy."

"I assume you know all of this by hacking into the GCPD records and reading Gordon's official files?" Alfred asked.

Bruce shrugged carelessly.

"Not just the ones he filed with the GCPD. It seems Gordon didn't trust his fellow officers back in the day." Bruce said.

"Can't say I blame him." Alfred sighed. "Are you sure all this computer hacking won't get you into trouble, sir?"

"I'm sure. Stop calling it hacking, Alfred. No one says that anymore." Bruce complained.  
"Well, what shall I call it then?" Alfred snapped.  
"I don't know, information gathering for now." Bruce said.

"Fine. Be sure your _information gathering_." he made air quotes. "Doesn't get you locked up with the very scum you're trying to stop."

"I will." Bruce promised easily.

~ Selina woke up in a strange place. Her arms and legs bound together, her body uncomfortable in such an awkward position.  
"Ivy?" she called out weakly. Her memories were swimming with the face of her old friend. Ivy had come to her home and… they had talked… what about? Selina couldn't remember.

Her throat was sore and she felt hung over.  
"Ivy?" she called out again.

The room was dark and there were sounds of dripping water. She shivered from the cold and felt the creeping hand of panic take hold of her.

She slowly sat up and looked around. Her hands were bound with rope and so were her feet. She had been laid out on some kind of exam table like a medical experiment.

She quickly used the adrenaline rush to push her into action. She was alone in the room and free to escape it. With her teeth, she pulled the roped that bound her hands. She tugged at them till they loosened and then pulled free. In seconds, her feet were free and she was on the move.

Silent and cat like, she slipped onto the cold floor. Her toes the only thing touching as she searched the room. The exam room must belong to some kind of hospital. The medical deceives were antiques and with the dim lighting, the whole thing looked like a nightmare.

Selina was happy to see that she still had on her shoes. A long learned habit of hers since so much of her childhood had been spent on the run. She only took of her shoes to shower or sleep. Even in her own home.

There was a steel door that would hopefully lead her outside. Carefully, she tested it and found it was locked. She didn't try again in case someone was waiting for her on the other side.

'_There is always a way out._' she had once told Bruce. '_Especially in old buildings_.'

This looked like an old building. That meant there were air vents in the walls.

She crouched down and looked for a metal grate. Finally, she found one. Not in the wall like she had hoped, but on the ceiling.

'_Great_.' she moaned inside her head.

Ever dextrous and spry, she easily climbed the exam table with a metal stool in her hand. With effortless ease, she placed the stool on top of the table, climbed up, stood on tip toe and silently pulled off the vent to the ceiling vents above.

The stool didn't even wobble as Selina jumped and pulled herself up.

The ventilation system was large and she was able to move easily inside.

'_Door was to my left when I went in_.' she thought to herself. '_I just have to find where the air come in or out and I'm free_.'

She liked talking to herself like this. It reminded her that she was good at this kind of thing. She could break out of anywhere and break into anything.

She would be gone before her captors even knew she had left.

She slid along the vents quietly and listened. There was no noise coming from the outside. When she passed grates, she peered into empty hospital rooms. All of them looked run down and deserted.

Was she in Gotham General? No, not even Gotham General was this run down and decrepit. Besides, where was the staff? No one was around and the rooms were all dimly lit.

Finally, Selina reached a dead end and had to abandon her ceiling route or go back the way she came.

She popped open a vent and dropped into a deserted hallway. This place smelled worse than it looked. Like bad plumbing, dampness and things left to rot.

Fear prickled her skin as she ran down the hallway in search of a way out.

Whatever this place was, a hospital a maze, it was one of the circles of hell for sure. It seemed to go on forever. Whenever Selina reached a locked gate, it was a simple matter of unhinging the weak point of the door to slip free.

The place was so old, the doors were covered in rust anyway. She rushed down stairs and avoided all the hallways that had bars on them.

'_I'm in a maze_.' she thought wildly as she ran past one hallway after another that all looked the same. '_I'm a rat in a maze._'

Finally, she found a window.

It was locked behind a bared gate, but there was an old hospital bed in the hallway and she pulled off a long piece of metal free from it.

Wedging the metal into the frame of the gate, it easily broke open.

'_This place is a nightmare_.' she thought. '_Worse than any horror movie ever made._'

Her heart was beating fast as she reached the window to find it locked with rusted pad lock.

No problem. She could use the piece of metal to break open the lock and climb down. Then she could get away.

She couldn't wait to tell Bruce about this. He would be so angry and happy that she was alright. He would take her in his arms, she would sit on his lap and he would run his hands though her hair. He would tell her over and over it was okay.

She liked this fantasy so much, she hit the pad lock with enough force to break the hasp and not the lock. The barred window swung open and Selina could smell the river outside. It was the sweetest smell to her just then.

She stepped onto the edge of the large window, and made the mistake of looking down. She gasped and moved back inside. She had to be ten stories up. The window was a strait drop into a rocky bed and the shores of the filthy Gotham River.

"Well done, Ivy." came a voice behind her.

Selina moved away from the ledge and looked in shock at the people standing there.

She was breathing hard and didn't understand what was happening.  
"I told you." Ivy said.

"Ivy?" Selina panted. "What's happening? Where are we?"

"Yes, she broke out of her restraints and her cell in less than five minutes. She managed to find a way out in less than thirty. I wouldn't jump if I were you, dear. It's a long way down." a woman was saint in a cat like purr.

Selina pressed her back to the wall and watched the shadows move. Finally, they became people as Ivy and another woman stepped into the moonlight.  
"Who are you?" Selina demanded from the strange woman with the jewel studded eye patch.  
"Such fire." the woman said. "Your friend Ivy here is an associate of mine. She promised that you were the final word in escaping out of tight spots. That you can also break into anything. Is that true?"

Selina glanced at Ivy. Her old friend looked shockingly different. She was dressed in a tight leather pencil skit the color of moss. Her red hair was not so frizzy and shone with proper care for once. Selina was shocked to see Ivy Pepper looking hauntingly beautiful.

But nothing like the girl she knew.

"I asked who are you?" Selina spat at the woman with the eye patch.

"Where are my manners?" the woman chuckled and she and Ivy exchanged smiles as if they were at a high society party.

"My name is Fish Moony. I had you brought here to see how easy it would be for you to break out of Arkham Asylum. As it turns out, Arkham is child's play for someone like you, Selina." Fish said sweetly.  
"What do you want?" Selina said hotly. She was liking Fish Moony less and less.  
"Many things." Moony said happily. "For now… I think you'll do just fine."


	2. Chapter 2

2.

~ Bruce kept an eye on the time, he was itching to go on patrols tonight. Sadly, he was on a dinner date with Vicki Vale that evening, and besides all the frequent stares from the other patrons in the restaurant, it was going well.

"Vicki." Bruce said after he half listened to her talking about the paper and the story she was working on. "What do you know about Penguin?"

"The flightless birds? I saw the documentary." she said with a shrug.

"No, I mean _the_ Penguin. The mob boss." Bruce explained.

Vicki shrugged.

"Never heard of him. Is he in Gotham?" she asked.

Bruce had to admire her innocence. She was his age but she seemed so fresh to the world. Everything she knew now had come from other sources. She reported things on the outside of the glass in a way. She had thankfully never seen how truly horrible Gotham could be.  
"To tell you the truth, I want to get out of the crime reporting. It's so depressing." she sighed.

Bruce glanced at his watch.  
"I mean, just the other day, I interviewed a girl who killed her family and burned them inside the home because her parents wouldn't let her date some boy. How insane is that?" she went on.

She ate half of her dinner and had the rest packaged to go.

"So what do you want to do?" Bruce asked.  
She looked dreamily off in the distance.  
"I think I would like to work as some kind of correspondent. You know for law makers and politicians? It's history in the making and those are the people that will change the world." she said sadly.  
"You should do it." Bruce told her encouragingly. "I'm sure if you spoke with your editor, he would put you on whatever you want."

"You'd think so wouldn't you?" Vicki laughed. "My editor only want to see me as a crime reporter. He says I made my mark reporting on crime in Gotham. Fortunately, there is a lot to report on. Especially with that masked lunatic running around beating up drug dealers and such."

"What?" Bruce asked in surprise.

"Some asshole in a scary motor cycle helmet keeps attacking street thugs." Vicki told him. "No one knows who he is. Probably some ex cop or nut case who wants to be a big man. Gordon's only comment is that the city docent tolerate vigilante justice."

"Just a corrupt police force." Bruce said bitterly.

"Well, corruption is all subjective." Vicki told him. "You should talk to our crime editor Harold if you want to know more about this Penguin. He knows everything about the city and it's crime."

"Harold? Harold at the Gotham Harold?" Bruce teased.

"Yeah, but don't bring that up, he hates it and I need him on his good side. He knows were all the bodies are buried in a way." Vicki told him.

"Can we go there now?" Bruce asked.

Vicki looked shocked.  
"I thought we were going back to your place." she said.

"The night's still young." Bruce said.  
"Why do you want to talk to Harold so badly?" Vicki accused. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"To be honest, I need a research topic for a class on… economics and I thought studying how organized crime has managed to influence growth in the bull market-"

"Fine." Vicki interrupted and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you actually like that kind of talk."

~ "See, Penguin started out holding Fish Moony's umbrella. He was an underling." Harold told Bruce in his small office at the Gotham Harold. "He managed to weasel his way to the top in just a few short years. He ratted out everyone and got away with it."

"Why didn't one of the Don's just eliminate him?" Bruce asked innocently. "You know, sleeping with the fishes?"

"A few tried, but Penguin was as slippery as they come. Now, he runs the red triangle gang in the narrows and has expanded to other parts of the city. He still hangs out at his old club."

"Club?" Bruce asked. "What club?"

"That gross little dive bar down on old market street. It used to be really classy when Fish ran it, but she was taken out by mysterious circumstances. No one has seen her in years. Penguin ran it ever since. Now, it's just a seedy place where all the murders are rumored to have gone down." Harold said with a giddy smile.  
"Why didn't Gordon arrest him?" Bruce asked.

"Ah, because nothing sticks to Penguin." Harold told him. "Like I said, he's slippery."

"But if he's killed people." Bruce said.  
"Yeah, but Gordon and Bullock either couldn't or wouldn't trace it back to him. It was like they were afraid of him." Harold said.

Bruce leaned back in his chair. Vicki looked bored sitting beside him.

"Jim Gordon afraid of Penguin." he said.

It was hard to imagine anything frightening the Gordon he knew.

"Can I look at some of your research on Penguin?" Bruce asked.

"I don't think it's a good idea, kid." Harold said. "You don't want this guy putting a target on you."

"I'll change the nick name. It's just for a college paper anyway."

"Well, so long as it stays that way. We make it a policy to not publish anything about Penguin here. I cold be wrong, but I thing our editor in chief might be under his umbrella if you catch my drift."

"Under his umbrella?" Bruce asked.  
"Penguin has dirt on everyone. Rumor has it he gets intel from Commissioner Lowe and uses it to blackmail people." Harold said. "I take you down to the basement."

Bruce stood while Harold shifted his large body off a well worn office chair.

"The basement? Why?" Bruce asked.  
"I don't keep my records on computers. I'm a _trust no_ one kind of guy. It's why we have the vault." Harold told him and lead the way to the elevators.  
"The vault?" Bruce questioned. He was liking Harold already.  
"It's like an underground bunker here at the paper. We keep all the old editions down there as well as all the photographs, notes and research in general." Vicki explained as she followed them downstairs. "If you want to know what Harold there had for lunch on the paper's dime twenty years ago, you go down to the vault."

"Excellent." Bruce said happily.

~ "Gotham Harold has been in business since before the civil war." Harold explained as Bruce looked out over a massive maze the size of a football stadium. They were standing on a balcony and Bruce could hardly believe that such a thing existed. The shelves were at least twenty feet high and loaded with white boxes with intricate file markings. Little file clerks went from one box to another using rolling ladders and were in a constant state of research.

"Tell me again why this isn't on a computer." Bruce asked. "Seems like it would be easier."

"Our rival papers were hacking into our data bases." Vicki explained. "Then there were concerns about the government spying on us as well."

"Back in the day, we reported on real news. Corruption was everywhere and the G.H. wasn't afraid to take it down. Not like now." Harold said.

"So, the only way to find notes on penguin is to come here." Bruce said sadly. This would make things a lot more complicated.

He quickly stashed the tracking device back in his suit. If only Harold here kept his research and files on his computer like a normal person. All Bruce would have to do is put the tracking box on his hard drive and then he could see everything that the crime reporter wrote or stored away.

No, this would be much harder.

"We don't make copies." Harold was saying and filled out a form for one of the clerks to get the paperwork out. "So you'll have to write it down. You can list me as a source. We don't let anyone who doesn't work here check stuff out, so don't expect this favor again."

"I won't and thank you. But what about that vigilante?" Bruce asked hopefully.  
"The nut job in the bike helmet." Vicki said bitterly. She was obviously growing bored with this date.

"The Batman?" Harold teased.

"The what?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, it's what some of these street thugs are calling him. The guy wears a scary mask and lurks on the rooftops dressed all in black. You know, just like a bat." Harold told him.

"Yeah." Bruce nodded. A bat wasn't exactly the image he was going for.

Harold signed out another box for all the reports on the vigilante and Bruce was allowed to used a little table to go over them. He spread out the manilla folders and looked over faded surveillance pictures, old news paper clippings and all the information the Gotham Harold had on Penguin and the unfortunately named Batman.

It was a gold mine. Reporters were able to find out anything Bruce had ever wanted to know about the weasel like man who ran the last crime family in Gotham. Bruce wondered why so many of the stories on Penguin failed to ever be published. So many of them were rejected by the editor and stored away. Harold must be right, everyone must be under Penguin's umbrella.

"Bruce." Vicki snapped.

Bruce was pulled out of a world of Penguin and his rise to power by Vicki Vale's angry glare.  
"What?" he asked.

"Bruce, you said we were going out and having a good time." she complained.  
"We went out. We're having a good time." Bruce explained.  
"Bruce, we're sitting in a basement library at my work reading over old crime notes." Vicki complained. "We might as well be at your house with me watching you play video games all night."

"I don't play play video games." Bruce told her.

"Bruce, this isn't romantic." she said hotly.

He wanted to continue his research on penguin but knew it would have to wait.

"You're right. I'm sorry." he said.

"Why don't I just go home?" she said hotly.

"Good idea." Bruce said. That would work out for everyone. "Can you call yourself a cab? I'd hate to wake Alfred to have him drive you home."

Vicki looked horrified. Was she upset Alfred wasn't driving her home?

"You are really going to sit here and let me leave?" she asked.  
"You said you were going home." Bruce said.

"Good night." Vicki said and grabbed her coat. She sounded angry, but Bruce shrugged it off.  
"Night." he called out and went back to his reading.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

~ "I want to go home." Selina told Fish and Ivy.

"You will." Fish promised while Ivy stood by and said nothing.

Selina noticed that Ivy looked taller than normal and realized she was in very high heels. The effect on her already long body was unsettling. Especially the way she was glaring at her. It was like Ivy hated her for some reason.

"I want to leave now!" Selina barked. "How did I even get here?"

"With this." Ivy said and tossed a tiny spray can at Selina. She quickly caught it felt it was empty.  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"My very own invention. I'll admit that the research for it came from another source." Ivy said. "I used a plant based pheromone to make you more manageable. It also has the effect of erasing your memory. You walked willing out of your little apartment and into my car like you were strolling through the park. No one suspected a thing."

"Ivy, people are going to miss me if I just vanish. I work at the DA's office. Harvey Dent keeps asking me out. If I disappear, he will wonder what happened."

"It's nothing another shot of that won't cure." Ivy said with a sadistic smirk. "I can make you say anything to anyone with it. I can make you quit your job, burn your apartment to the ground or even walk right out that window and land on the rocks below. No one would find your body for weeks. It would be such a mess by then."

Her old friend's words were cold and calculated. Selina felt afraid and knew that Ivy could indeed do such a thing. Ivy could kill her and sleep very well at night.

"Ivy, please." Selina said. "It doesn't have to be like this."

"I'm afraid it does." Fish said.

Selina looked at the woman with the eye patch. She was older, well groomed and wore expensive and well tailored clothing.

"You see, a few years ago, I found myself banished from my beloved home city of Gotham. I was thrown to the wolves and left to be eaten alive in many ways. And yet, I returned and was leading the pack." she purred.

"Yeah, you seem like a real dog to me." Selina said hatefully.

Ivy glanced at Fish and Fish only smiled.

"I met young Ivy here on my return and recognized her raw, untapped talent. Since then, she has worked for me. She's been my eyes and ears around Gotham and she's helped me to make certain people's lives very… uncomfortable." Fish explained.  
"None of this involves me." Selina said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Correction." Fish said in a deadly serious tone. "It does involve you."

Fish had changed so drastically, Selina was forced to pay attention. Everything Selina had learned in life said the Fish Moony was a woman of power. A dangerous person to be around.

"You see, a lot of my dealings have been corrupted by a number variables." Fish said in that cold, evil tone. "All of them I've traced back to one person. Some nut job dressed in black who's been chasing away my drug trade and causing my income to be less reliable."

"I know who you're talking about." Selina said. "He's just a freak in a mask."

"He must go down." Fish said venomously.

"So take him down. He's a man, he's not bullet proof." Selina said. "You don't need me."

"No one knows who he is or where he came from." Ivy explained. "Normally we would hurt him by attacking his loved ones."

"The freak, as you call him, is like smoke." Fish said. Her well manicured nails looking like claws in the moonlight. "He comes and he goes as he pleases and we have no way to find him. How can we hurt a man we can't even find?"

"That sounds like a _you_ problem." Selina said.

Fish glared at her.  
"I've brought you here to draw him out, Selina. Ivy says that you can break into anything. I want you to break into something for me."

"When I break into a place, I don't get caught." Selina said. She neglected to mention that last time.  
"Oh, you'll get caught this time, dear." Fish said sweetly. "But not by the inept goons of the GCPD."

"I won't help you." Selina told them.

"Ivy?" Fish said.

Before Selina could turn away, Ivy had sprayed her in the face with something and her whole world was spinning.

The dark room with it's peeling paint and broken plaster was suddenly bright and cheerful. The sun was shinning outside and she felt like the light was dancing.

"Selina," Ivy was saying. Her voice like a lovely song now.

Selina looked at her old friend and saw plants growing out of her jacket. Flowers were blooming out of her red hair. Ivy looked like she was being consumed by plant life.

"Selina, step out of the window." Ivy told her in a sugary sweet voice.

Without a second thought, Selina turned around and faced the open window.  
"The river, the rocks." Selina said weakly.

"There's nothing to be afraid of." Ivy said. "It's just a garden outside. Take a look and you'll see."

Selina looked and Ivy was right. There was a beautiful lush garden right outside the window. She took a few steps towards it and stood at the threshold.

"It's so pretty." Selina said. She could smell flowers and freshly cut grass. She could hear birds singing.

"Go out into the garden, Selina." Ivy said encouragingly.

Selina nodded and took a step onto the ground. Her foot stepping out into nothingness.

The loss of her footing made everything painfully real. Her heart raced as she slipped off the edge of the window and fell. Her cat like reflexes catching hold of the ledge before she plunged to her death.

The garden around her was transforming. Being swallowed up by the filthy Gotham River and the sunshine was being replace by the brightness of the moon.

"Ivy!" Selina screamed in terror as her fingers started to slip.

She was trying to catch hold of something, anything to put her feet on. She was going to fall from this window and die.

"Ivy, please help me!" Selina cried out in terror.

Ivy appeared at the large window. Her long red hair flowing freely in the breeze. It must have been a side effect of the drug, because Selina could still see flowering plants in her hair. Her skin almost covered in winding green leaves.

"What's the matter?" Ivy asked in a baby like voice. "Does kitty want to come back inside and play nice?"

"Ivy!" Selina cried out. "Please, I'm going to fall!"

"You're going to do as Fish tells you." Ivy spat. Her skin turning the color of moonlight and the plants around her withering and dying.

"Yes!" Selina cried. Her grip on the window ledge faltering. "Yes, I'll help you."

"No tricks." Ivy ordered.  
"No, I promise." Selina whimpered. Tears were streaking down her face.

She was about to slip again when Ivy grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her off the ledge and safely back inside.

"My wasn't that dramatic." Fish Moony said with an impressed little grin. Selina was breathing hard. She had been moments away from death and the effect felt like razor blazes were in her blood.

"Now, Cat." Fish said. "Are you willing to play nice?"

"Whatever you need." Selina gulped. "But then I want to be left alone."

"I hope that's how it will end up." Fish said. "But I can't make you any promises."

~ Penguin had always enjoyed the spoils of war. The club that had once belonged to Fish was his favorite prize of them all. True, attendance was nonexistent these days, but that hardly mattered. What mattered to Penguin was that he was the lord of all he saw. Here he was king and best of all, he had taken it from Fish all those years ago.

Very few performance acts were available and willing to put on a show for the dark, dimly lit club in the bad part of Gotham. They were all too afraid of the pale skinned man with the hawk like nose and odd way of walking.

Just now, a magician was on stage, failing to impress. He was too nervous and kept missing the mark.

Penguin ate his cold dinner in the shadows and said nothing. His mind was already troubled with the news that Fish Moony might have come back to Gotham. Impossible, she hadn't been heard from in years now. Why lay low for so long and then come back? What was she planning?

"Sir?" came a timid barkeep.

Penguin eyed the peon from the shadows and remind silent.

"Sir, Gordon is here to see you." the peon said and bowed away.

Penguin, only nodded and the bartender escorted his old friend Gordon to the head table.

"Boy this place is doing great." Gordon said cheerfully. "You're having to turn people away at the doors."

Penguin didn't like the joke. He didn't like Gordon either.

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers loudly. The magician on stage looked scared, gathered all his things and fled. The other peons at the bar understood they were being dismissed while Gordon was here.  
"What is it you want, Gordon?" Penguin asked. "You only come here when you want something. Information, a favor. Information about favors." Penguin teased. "You're a terrible detective. Having me do all the work for you. Maybe the GCPD should hire me."

"You'd fail the physical with that bum leg of yours." Gordon said quickly.

Penguin frowned.  
"Be quick, Jim. I have other fish to fry." he said.  
"Fish. Since you brought her up." Gordon said with a smug smile. "I have reason to believe Fish Moony is back in town. Have you heard anything about it?"

"Not a peep." Penguin said with a sarcastic smile.  
"She might be in the company of this young woman." Gordon said placing a picture on Penguin's table next to his cold dinner.

The photo was of a lovely red headed young woman. She looked like a model for Vogue and not someone who was associated with a has been like Fish.  
"Who is she?" Penguin asked.  
"Her name is Ivy Pepper." Gordon said. "She's the daughter of the late Mario Pepper."

"Oh, yes. Terrible shame about that misunderstanding." Penguin said with a chortle.

"We think she's an associate of Fish Moony." Gordon said. "Ivy was one of the many street kids who escaped the mayors purge a few years ago. She's been missing from her old haunts for over a year now. Any idea why she's hanging out with your old boss?"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time Fish has taken a young, innocent girl and groomed her for sinister purposes." Penguin said lazily. "It's possible this poor little bird is being manipulated by Fish. If it goes south, Gordon, don't think the old harpy won't cut her loose and leave her bleeding."

"Why is Fish back in Gotham?" Gordon asked.  
"I've no idea." Penguin said with a grin. "She's old news isn't she?"

Gordon leaned back in his chair.

"This is a curtsey, Penguin." he said before standing up. "Fish is back. You might want to grow eyes in the back of your head."

"I already have." Penguin laughed as Gordon left him to his cold dinner in his empty club.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

~ Bruce stayed well into the night looking over Harold's notes on Penguin. The vault never seemed to close, as there was always something to do down there. Some file to pull or story to finish before deadline.

Bruce used Harold's pass to pull every conceivable angle on Penguin and the red triangle gang.

He was surprised to see so many notes on his own parents death. How shocking it was, how Gotham would never be the same. He had always thought his mother and father's murders only hurt him, but it seemed to have caused a ripple effect in all of Gotham.

Just after his parents were murdered, Penguin, then known as Oswald Cobblepot made his first entrance in the GCPD. He had claimed Mario Pepper, the assumed killer at the time, wasn't the guilty party at all.

What followed was years of bad blood, mysterious deaths and GCPD cover ups. Most of this, Bruce already knew from his own research of the GCPD data banks, but Harold had interviewed a number of people over the years about the Penguin. All of them telling the same story of an insecure little man who literally killed to be on top.

His involvement in the red triangle gang hadn't appeared on the radar until a few years ago. Penguin's plan of hiring petty thugs and thieves to commit crimes and divide police attention so that no one paid attention to the real criminals at work.

Causing confusion within the GCPD was point A.

Diversion of police around the city with bank robberies and other endeavors that were doomed to fail was point B.

This left point C. Penguin and his crew ripping of the real targets. These could be futures brokers or anyone with enough power to control the money. It was an elegant system and worked time after time.

Point A leading to point B and then to point C. Perfect triangle of crime and blood. Hence the nickname.

Bruce had to admire Harold for cracking it. No wonder he wasn't allowed to print the story. He would be a dead man if this saw the light of day.

Bruce quickly memorized the names Harold had mention of suspected cops who helped Penguin. He was sad to see Gordon was among them. What was Gordon's connection to a man like Penguin anyway?"

~ "Nice drive isn't it?" Ivy was saying. Selina hadn't paid much attention to the scenery while in Fish's vintage Roles Royce car. She was still suffering from the effects of whatever Ivy had given her. Colors of streetlights were so beautiful, they looked like candy. Then, they suddenly changed and morphed into disgusting insects right before her eyes. No, nothing about this was lovely.

"Don't worry, Cat." Ivy said. Her old friend, if Selina could still think of her like that, was sitting in the back seat with her while Fish drove. "The drugs will be out of your system soon. Although I can't say there won't be irreversible damage."

"What?" Selina whispered. She couldn't live like this. Ivy had flowers and green plants growing out of her hair all the time. One second she looked fine, another, weeds and greenery were blooming out of her and her skin melted away and was a talking skull.

"Now, don't scare the girl, Ivy." Fish said with the ease and comfort of a mother. "We need your little friend to feel comfortable and confident if she's going to do a good job."

Ivy smirked at Selina's suffering and pulled away from her.

"Cat, dear?" Fish said. "This is where you'll be staying and working from now on."

The car was pulling to a stop and Selina looked out the window. It was dark and raining still, but the yellowed outdoor lights showed an historic gothic style mansion. The lack of lights inside must mean that it was abandoned or no longer kept up at all.

"Home sweet home" Fish said as Ivy roughly pushed Selina out of the car. Her head was still spinning and the great house looked like a monster to her.

"I'll admit it isn't what it used to be. The old girl was once such a beauty and now she's been left to rot. Happened when the Wayne's were murdered. A lot of Gotham's old money vanished overnight when they were killed. I think some investors were trying to spruce it up before they relinquished it to us." Fish told her.

Selina watched Fish play with her smart phone a moment and the whole house lit up like a christmas tree. The place was massive and decorated with real victorian flare.

"So the Adams family moved away huh?" Selina asked casually. She was trying to control her fear. Even without the aide of the drug, She knew she was in real trouble.

Fish only smiled.

"Ivy needed a greenhouse. A large one, for all her research." Fish said. "That's a thing that's hard to find in Gotham."  
"Ivy, dropped out of school when we were kids." Selina laughed. "What research can she do?"

"Schooling or no, Ivy is a bright girl." Fish said quickly.

They were climbing the steps to the front porch and Fish quickly pushed Selina inside.  
"A lot of self taught information I guess you could say." she said. "I even had her tested and her intelligence couldn't me actuality measured. So, I enrolled her in some classes under a fake name. Botany, biology, chemistry, physics. Less than a year, she was creating the most amazing things. We just needed a home base with a laboratory, a greenhouse and privacy."

What a home it was. Selina had to admire the beauty of the house Fish had chosen. The original owners must have left town quickly, because there was still evidence of repair work long abandoned in the large rooms.

"The Adams family didn't leave willingly, did they?" Selina asked.

Fish smiled.

~ "Let me show you the conservatory!" Ivy said happily. She pulled Selina to the glass room like they were still girlhood friends and Ivy wanted her to see her bedroom.  
Selina tried to slow down, tried to take in everything about the house, but Ivy was pulling her.

What Selina did see was that there were locks and bars on every window. Normally, that wouldn't worry her, she could get out of worse, but if Ivy and Fish kept her drugged, she wouldn't stand a chance.

Ivy pulled her reluctantly into a large conservatory where the temperature had radically changed to warm and muggy. Exotic plants were growing everywhere. A few, even reaching the glass ceiling with their massive leaves pushing towards the sun.

"Isn't it amazing?" Ivy said happily. "I've managed to gain a cutting of almost every sample the botany department at Gotham University has. I'll need more space soon."

"What do you do with them?" Selina asked. She was eyeing the doors in and out of the greenhouse.  
"Don't even think about it, Cat." Ivy said darkly. "Fish had dogs that roam around grounds of the house. If you try to leave, they will attack you. I know how much you hate dogs."

Selina gave Ivy a hard look. Ivy only shrugged and smiled.

"As for what I do with my plants, it's complicated. I have a small lab in the basement where I can either create a new line of hair care products using plant based material, or create a subversive poison that is deadly to when touched and untraceable." Ivy said.  
"Cool." Selina nodded sarcastically. "Is that how you got your hair to look like that? Cuz I can't do a thing with mine."

Ivy looked amused. Selina was happy to see the drug was already wearing off. Although Ivy still looked like she had plants wanting to consume her.

"So, what have you been up to, Cat?" Ivy asked. "It's been over a year."  
"This and that. You know me." Selina said.  
"Bruce Wayne? Is he considered this and that?" Ivy asked.  
Selina rolled her eyes and pretended she could care less about Bruce.  
"I was hurt a while back. You were gone and I needed help. I used whatever lingering feelings Bruce had for me. He took me back to his mansion and when he found out that I was breaking into jewelry stores…" Selina felt a slight pain in her heart. "He sent me to a hotel alone until I was better."

"Then he started dating that Vicki girl." Ivy finished for her.

Selina remained silent.

"At least you came out alright in the end." Ivy said. "You found a nice apartment."

"Sublet." Selina lied.  
"And a job with the DA of Gotham." Ivy said with a grin.  
"Like I said, he has a crush on me." Selina told her. "Speaking of Harvey, I need to call him. Tell him I quit or I'll be out for a little while."

"Why?" Ivy's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Some genius you are." Selina laughed. "If I don't show up to work, Harvey Dent is going to freak out. Like I said, he's hopeless. Then people will be looking for me. We can't have that."

"No, we can't." Ivy said.

She took out a smart phone from her pocket.  
"You'll do this in front of me, and don't try to tell Mr. Harvey Dent what's up because I'll will kill you. It will all be for nothing to because this phone is untraceable. Fish makes sure of it." Ivy said.

Selina shrugged and gave Ivy the number to dial.

Ivy kept her phone on speaker and Selina heard it ring twice before picking up.  
"Hello?" came the voice of a man.

Selina spoke quickly.  
"Harvey! Hey, it's Selina Kyle. Listen, I've had something come up and I won't be in the office for a while. Some friends and I are going out of town."

"Selina?" came the man's voice. "This-"

"Listen, Harvey, I won't be at my place anymore either, so don't bother." Selina interrupted. Her voice sounded louder than normal.  
She looked at Ivy who seemed to approve of everything she was saying.  
"So, we won't be able to have that dinner date at the Fox Run. I was looking forward to it, but I just can't make it. I'm sure you'll understand."

"Selina, what's happened?" came the man's voice.

"Listen, Harvey." Selina said with a laugh. "It's over. I'm not into you and I think it's best if I just quit my job now and move out of Gotham. Leave me alone."

Ivy hung up the phone and look annoyed.  
"That was a bit dramatic." she said suspiciously.  
"I had to sell it." Selina said.

~ Bruce Wayne held his cell phone in hand at the abrupt cut off. There was something strange in the way she talked. Why did she think she was calling Harvey Dent? Why was she leaving Gotham? Who were these friends of hers?

He quickly tried to reverse dial the call and found it was blocked.

Instead he called the only person he could.  
"Alfred, it's going to be a long night. I think Selina's in trouble."


	5. Chapter 5

5.

~ Bruce looked around Selina's loft apartment. How many times had he watched her from across the street without her knowing? Things look so different from this side. There was no sign of a fight. If Selina had been taken out of here against her will, she would have fought back.

Her door had been left unlocked, her purse looped over the coat rack and her cell phone was charging on the kitchen counter. Who left their home without a cell phone these days?

Bruce answered his own question.

_'__Someone who was kidnapped_.'

But Selina was a fighter. Surely the doorman would have reported any incident to the police if he saw Selina being taken from the building. None of this made any sense.

A black cat seemed to appear out of the shadows and meowed loudly for something. Bruce didn't like cats. They were too mysterious and fickle in their attentions.

'_Not unlike Selina._' he thought miserably.

He found the dry cat food and refilled the black cat's food dish. Now that it was fed, the little beast cared nothing for him.

Bruce used his own key to lock the door to Selina's apartment again.

~ "Well yes, sir." the door man said eagerly. "Miss Kyle left here with a really pretty red headed young woman. I thought she was one of her friends from whatever movie she's working on."

"Red headed woman?" Bruce demanded.  
"Yeah." The doorman said. "Really tall and really pretty. Long red hair."

"Did Miss Kyle look like she didn't want to go?" Bruce asked.  
"No." The door man said. A puzzled look on his face. "She waved at me and said she was going out with her friend. Smiled and…" The door man paused.  
"What?" Bruce demanded harshly.  
"Well, I guess the girls had been drinking a little." The door man chuckled. "Miss Kyle looked a little tipsy. Not that it's my place to say anything."

"Did you see what kind of car they left in?" Bruce asked.  
"Oh yeah!" The doorman said eagerly. "Real beauty. A classic Rolls Royce. It looked like a 59' or maybe even a 60'. I can't be sure. But it was a real nice white car."

"Vintage Rolls Royce." Bruce muttered.

~ "Might I remind you, sir." Alfred said sarcastically. "That Miss Kyle may have just skipped town with her friend? I think we both know how unreliable she can be."

"Maybe." Bruce said. He was in the downstairs bunker Alfred had started calling the cave due to it's dark, gloomy atmosphere.

"It wouldn't be the first time she's left without warning." Alfred added.  
"She left the cat." Bruce said.

"What?"

"She had a cat in her apartment." Bruce said as if that proved something. "Why would she leave for any period of time and leave the cat unfed?"

"Maybe a neighbor was taking care of the cat." Alfred offered.  
"Selina isn't friendly with people." Bruce said. "I doubt she would let someone into her home. Even if it was just to feed the cat."

"Good thing you have your own key." Alfred said darkly.  
"Alfred." Bruce's voice was harsh. "Selina is not a kept woman. I'm not the kind of man who… who _keeps_ a woman."

"Of course not, sir." Alfred said curtly. "She was dating Harvey Dent after all."

"She called me on my cell, and then she talked to me like I was Harvey." Bruce grumbled. "That's not proof she's dating him."  
"She dialed you by mistake. Thought she was talking to Mr. Dent. Wrong number." Alfred said. Bruce didn't want to admit that might be the case. It was easier to think Selina was in trouble rather than Selina dating the oh so charismatic Harvey Dent.

Harvey Dent had been very interested her at the dinner party a few months ago. he had also given Selina a job in his department. Harvey was good looking, charming and could easily understand women. He was all the things Bruce wasn't.

"It's not my concern who Selina is dating." Bruce said finally. He had finished running the search on his computer for the elusive car Ivy was driving.  
"No reports of any high end vintage cars stolen." he sighed. "There was a Rolls Royce from 1958 that matches the doorman's description. It belonged to car collector in Gotham some time ago."

"He sold it?" Alfred asked. "To Miss Ivy?"

"Says he relinquished the title to a Mister Oswald Cobbelpot." Bruce said in surprise.

"Penguin?" Alfred asked. "Well, that's very interesting."

~ Penguin's foot was acting up again. A dull pain that pills and booze didn't help anymore. He had never been right after the violence of his first year in dealing with the mob. Sometimes he would wake up, still thinking he was in the river. That maybe Gordon had shot him and he had drowned and was long ago eaten up fish in Gotham River next to Arkham Asylum.

He decided to stop drinking for the night. His thoughts were becoming a little too grotesque.

The club he had inherited was silent and still. His bartenders had long ago left and he was alone. Sometimes, he missed the simpler days. When Fish carried all the weight and he only had to worry about her umbrella. He had been so young. So young and thought he knew it all.

When the sound of broken glass reached his ears, Penguin didn't look up. He knew who it was. He had been expecting this visitor for a long time now.  
"Don't be afraid." Penguin said. His speech was slightly slurred and the expensive merlot he had been drinking was making his brain feel fuzzy. "Come out of the dark and we can have a proper conversation. We're two businessmen after all."

Penguin had learned the hard way to always be aware of his surroundings. That he always had someone who wanted him dead. He had felt the hatred for so long, it actually kept him warm at night.

"No worries." Penguin told the shadows with a little smile. He was feeling generous tonight. "You were expected. Look."

He placed his hands on the table.  
"I'll keep my hands in plain sight the whole time."

He watched a dark figure emerge from the rafters and slip down into the darker parts of his club. Who knows how long this creature was watching him.

"I take it you're here to negotiate some kind of protection." Penguin said. "You've been disrupting my shipment of booze as well as my side businesses."

The shadows said nothing.

"It's rude not to speak when spoken to!" Penguin snapped. His blood was racing and he could feel his anger mounting.

"Whatever it is you want, you won't get. I don't give into street thugs. You're so uncivilized." he said. He felt as if he was talking to himself. "However, you've demonstrated to me that you're very skilled at certain things. Maybe, there could be a place for you in my organization."

Penguin watched as the figure stepped out of the shadows. he took in the black body armor, the helmet with the night vision built in. It made the man's eyes look red. Like some kind of demon standing there in the darkness.

Perhaps it was his reckoning.

"Pass." the figure said.

Penguin laughed.  
"I can see why they call you a bat." he chuckled. "Look at you. All dressed in black. You must be terrifying."

"What is your relationship to Jim Gordon?" the dark figure asked.  
"We're the best of friends." Penguin said cheerfully. "Sometimes we pick flowers in the field behind the GCPD. Then I braid his hair and he does mine. Then we have our girl talk."

Penguin found this very funny and smothered a laugh.

"The truth." the figure said.

"I make it a policy to never tell the truth." Penguin told him. "You wouldn't believe me anyway so why bother?"

"If you don't tell me about Jim Gordon, why he was investigated by internal affairs and the mayor, this rat whole will burn to the ground tonight." the figure said.

"I take offense to that, sir." Penguin said. He couldn't mask the hurt in his voice. "This club is very clean. I make sure of it. Didn't your mother ever teach you manners?"

The figure stepped closer and with simple flick of the wrist, the table Penguin had been sitting at all evening was flipped over.

"Such a good merlot." Penguin sighed.

"Gordon." the figure said.

Penguin rolled his eyes.  
"I'll tell you what I know. But only because I want you to leave. Gordon isn't a dirty cop. Yet, he does things a dirty cop does. They all do. Everyone in the GCPD has made some deal with the devil." Penguin said. "But who's to say I'm not lying about that? Maybe Gordon just crossed the wrong people. Maybe they only way to survive in Gotham is to be a little bad."

The figure leaned away from him as if thinking.

"Your car. The white Rolls." it said.  
"Oh, my baby." Penguin sighed. He felt a real heart break whenever he thought about his car. "I loved that car. It was unwillingly given to me as a birthday present a few years ago. I miss it so much."

"Your friend was seen driving it." the figure said.

"I don't have friends." Penguin said with a smirk. "Whomever you saw in my car, is no friend of mine."

"Then who?" the darkness asked.  
"Probably whoever took her." Penguin said. "She was stolen from me in the middle of the day. Right outside the club. My two bodyguards were killed in the street for her. Can you believe it? This city has really gone to the dogs."

"How do I know you're not lying about that?" the figure asked.  
Penguin smiled.

"Well, I guess you don't." he said sheepishly. "But if you get my baby back for me, I would be very amenable to working with you. You'd be surprised to learn all the things I've heard over the years."

"Your gang is on notice, Penguin." the darkness said. His voice was like gravel. "Leave this city. I'll be back in a week, and if you're still here, things will get messy."

Penguin felt, rather than saw the figure leave. He sensed the darkness swallow him whole and could heard him leaping up the rafters and onto the roof.

"I'll be right here if you want to talk! Maybe call next time!" Penguin shouted.

No one ran Penguin off. Not Fish, not the Dons, not street thugs and certainly not some freak in body armor.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

~ Selina had hoped all of this was just a bad dream. Sometimes her dreams were so real she wasn't sure if she could trust them or not. Her dreams were especially bad when she felt helpless or out of control. When she was younger, nightmares always haunted her. The only times she actually felt safe was when she stayed at Wayne Manor. Not even her own apartment could compare to way she slept so peacefully in the pink bedroom Bruce had given her. She could never admit to anyone that perhaps it was Bruce and Alfred that made her feel that way. They were so steady, so stable and permanent, she knew they would never falter in any storm. True, Bruce wouldn't last a second on the mean streets of Gotham, but he was reassuring non the less. His money and influence was what protected him. None of this would have happened if she had stayed at Wayne Manor.

She woke up in a strange place. Her bed here was just a mattress of the floor and her bedroom completely spartan with crumbling plaster on the walls. The grand house had certainly seen better days.

She sat up and looked around her. This house must have been apart of the old money of Gotham. Perhaps Bruce's parents had known the owners. Now, it was a hiding place for her kidnappers. Who was this Fish person and why was Ivy so committed to her? Ivy never committed herself to anything. The Ivy she knew wasn't like this strange woman that had drugged and kidnapped her. It had to be more than just a simple alliance to take out a mutual enemy.

Selina looked out the window and saw she was well outside of the city. Woods surrounded the house and grounds, but she could still see some of city's tallest buildings in the distance. Gotham's towers beckoned her home like a siren song.

She tried to open the window and felt it was locked securely with a new padlock and hasp.

She jumped when a large dog savagely attacked the window as if he wanted to break in and maul her. His jaws were wolf like and hungry for her. She had always hated dogs. When she was younger, a pack of dogs had attacked her. She and some other kids were looking for food in the ally of a restaurant during the bad times. Selina shut her eyes tightly at the painful memory and backed away from the window.

"Fish keeps the whole place on lock down." Ivy said. "No one in or out."

Selina turned to see her old friend was standing in the doorway. Ivy looked different from last night. Her hair wasn't so shiny, her legs didn't seem as long. her makeup more natural.

"Sleep well?" Ivy asked and handed her a cup of something that smelled wonderful.

Selina waved the cup of coffee away. She wasn't trusting Ivy anymore after what happened last night.

"You slept almost all day." Ivy told her and sipped the coffee herself.

"Maybe it was the drugs." Selina said hatefully.  
"Cat, don't be like that. You know I had to. We need your help. Fish has to get rid of this nigh bat whoever he is. All we're asking is for your help in luring him out. We're going to set a trap for him." Ivy said.  
"What makes you think I can lure him and not the cops?" Selina asked.  
"Only that you've done it a hundred times before. Are you not the best cat burglar around? If not, I can tell Fish and she can shoot you in the head right now." Ivy said coldly.

Selina felt like her blood had turned to ice.

"What is it you want me to do?" she asked.

"Simple." Ivy said. "Our sources tell us that our little crime fighter has been attacking and stopping the movements of the red triangle gang in the narrows. Penguin is upset about it. Normally, Fish likes it when Penguin is upset, but she realized that with Penguin neutralized, that freak show would soon come after us. We can't have that."

"We don't know who he is." Selina said rationally. "How can we track him?"

"Easy, you'll break into a bank vault. The bat will come." Ivy said in a smooth, eloquent voice Selina wasn't used to.

"What if he doesn't show?" Selina asked.  
"He'll show." Ivy said. "We know he's been patrolling the area these past few months. Penguin's goons are terrified of him. When the cops won't respond to the call of the break in, the good samaritan will swoop in."

"What vault am I going to break into?" Selina asked.

"Old Gotham Prime." Ivy said.  
"Old Gotham Prime is in the narrows. In crime ally. That bank has been out of commission for years." Selina laughed. "There's no money in it."

"That's what you think." Ivy smiled. "Penguin keeps cash, drugs and weapons in the vault. Tax reasons I guess. It is the hub of all his misdeeds and you'll break in."  
"If there is money, drugs and weapons there, then it will be heavily guarded." Selina told her. "I'll be killed the second they spot me."

"Then don't let them spot you." Ivy said simply.

~ The large conservatory looked different in the light of day. Maybe the drugs were finally wearing off, or maybe it was just the welcome relief of sunlight. The plants didn't look nearly as menacing as they did last night.  
"I want to show you something." Ivy said. "It will help you when you're in the bank."

"A machine gun?" Selina asked.  
"Better." Ivy said with a smile.

She held up a canister that looked like a smoke grenade.

"My very own blend. Taken from the subtropic Larien Flower. Very little is know about it, so I suggest you wear a gas mask when you deploy it in the bank. It will dissipate in roughly thirty seconds, but the damage I've seen it do is impressive once it's entered the lungs."

"What does it do?" Selina asked skeptically.  
"Don't worry about that. It will save your life if you're discovered." Ivy pointed out. "I've obtained the blueprints for the Old Gotham Prime Bank. Much of the building has been changed, so you my have to wing it."  
Selina looked around the greenhouse. She hadn't see Fish that morning yet.  
"Ivy, lets get out of here. Lets just go." Selina whispered.

Ivy looked slightly offended.  
"Go?" she questioned. "Why would I leave? I'm home now. Can't you understand that? Fish took me in when I had nothing. She made me stronger, better than I could ever hope to be. If she needs my help, then I'll do it."

"Ivy, what did she do to you?" Selina asked.

Ivy gave her a cold, unflinching stare.

"Fish gave me a way to never be a victim again." Ivy told her.

~ Harvey Dent enjoyed dinners at the Fox Run. It was an exclusive club for the well connected men of Gotham. The young DA had high aspirations for himself. He had always held himself to a higher calling in life. He wouldn't stop with just District Attorney. He would eventually run for mayor, then Governor or maybe a senator. There was no limit to how far he could climb. He was still young, smart, articulate and it didn't hurt he was handsome.

So why was his love life always in shambles?

He sipped his red whine and cut into the beef stake that was too well cooked. He knew the answer. He had a temper when it came to certain things. Women sensed it, and they stayed away. Gordon had even called him spineless once. Harvey had decked the detective for it and earned a black eye and a broken tooth in return. He and Gordon were still friends though. What an odd world Gotham could be.

He knew the nickname the assholes in Major Crimes called him. How he assured those battle hardened detectives a conviction, only to settle on a lesser charge to avoid a trial. They didn't understand how court systems worked. How much money it costs to prosecute a criminal. It wasn't like these scum bags were confessing to their crimes of murder and drug trafficking. It takes a lot of work to make a case.

So Harvey Dent had to pick his battles. He made the mistake of promising too much. But that was life. So what if those detectives at Major Crimes called him Harvey 'Two Faced' Dent? It wasn't their call to make.

"Harvey?" came a friendly voice.

Harvey looked up and was shocked to see Bruce Wayne of all people at the Fox Run.  
"Harvey Dent?" Bruce asked again and shook his hand.

Harvey was quick to swallow what he was chewing and stood to shake Bruce Wayne's hand.  
"Yes, Mr. Wayne." Harvey said quickly. "So nice to see you again."

"Likewise." Bruce said cheerfully. "May I join you?"

Harvey, still surprised to see billionaire Bruce Wayne appearing so suddenly, waved at an open chair.  
"Of course. I didn't know you were a member here." Harvey said.  
"I should hope I'm a member." Bruce chuckled. "My grandfather started this club and I own the building."

"Right." Harvey said. "Just, I never see you here."

"I'm a bit of a home body." Bruce told him. "Tell me, how is Selina Kyle working out?"

Harvey was instantly transported back to seeing the lovely Miss Kyle at work.

"Well, great I suppose. She works in the file room. I really don't see her."  
"Are you two dating?" Bruce asked skeptically.

Harvey leaned away. He had to be careful with his reply. For all he knew, Bruce Wayne was secretly dating Miss Kyle. Maybe they were an item and that pretty blond reporter was just something for the papers. On the other hand, maybe they used to be a couple and Mr Wayne was just territorial about who his exes dated after him. If he laughed and said no, Wayne might be insulted that he wasn't interested in Selina at all.

"No. We're not dating." Harvey said. "She works for my office. I don't think that would be appropriate."

"The reason I ask is that she has my number and it would seem she accidentally called me the other night." Bruce said casually.  
"Oh?" Harvey asked.  
"Yes, it seems she thought she was calling you and relayed that she wouldn't be able to join you here at the Fox Run for dinner." Bruce said.  
Harvey couldn't believe what he was hearing.  
"Well, I don't know what she could have meant." he said. He hoped it sounded like he was't lying. "Fox Run doesn't allow women in. It's a private men's club. Members only."

"Yes, I'm aware of the rules, Mr. Dent." Wayne said curtly. "Has she been in to work the past few days?"

"I haven't seen her." Harvey said clearing his throat. "I swear I never invited her to the Fox Run. I mean, I've asked her out a few times, but she always shoots me down." he explained quickly.

Bruce smiled an easy, self confidant smile.  
"It's fine Harvey. Can you do me a favor? Call me when you get back to the office and tell me if Selina is at work today. I haven't seen her in a while. I worry." he said.

"Are you two an item?" Harvey asked jokingly.

Wayne's face turned to stone. Harvey knew enough about the elusive young man to know that if he didn't like you, your career in Gotham was over.  
"I mean, that's none of my business." Harvey said quickly.

Bruce pulled out a business card out of his breast pocket. Harvey couldn't help but notice how expensive his suit was. How Wayne wore it was such ease.

"Call me when you can. That's my personal cell phone number. Please don't give it out." Bruce said solemnly.

Harvey nodded awkwardly as Bruce stood up to leave.


	7. Chapter 7

7.

~ Breaching the security of any bank wasn't easy. Banks were specifically built to be hard to rob. They were usually buried in a city, nowhere near a highway. This prevented a quick escape and made it easy for police to cut off any exit routes. Then there were the limited exits in the main building. Especially in the older banks. Most of these were built with only one door. A single point of ingress. Windows were high and far too risky. Still, it was her best shot. It wasn't like she could just walk in the front door of a mob boss's personal safe that was ripe with armed guards.

Selina looked over the massive building. It was built when the Narrows was a booming working class area. A new construction for the post war era when everyone was looking forward to the brightness of the future. But that time was long gone, and the Narrows had changed into crime ally. The bank looked the part of a sad, abandoned building that had seen better days.

Ivy drove her luxury car around the block again so Selina could take another look. She quickly saw she could gain access to the roof from a building a block away.

"It's nowhere near the bank." Ivy accused.  
"Exactly, that won't see me coming. I can jump from the rooftops and land near that skylight. I'll be inside in less than thirty seconds and I'll deploy your little weapon." Selina explained.

"Only as a last resort." Ivy said. "It's a defensive weapon, not offensive."  
"I don't understand why you just don't spray that mind control stuff in the bank and turn the guards into your slaves." Selina said as Ivy turned a corner and almost hit a homeless man.  
"It doesn't work like that." Ivy told her. "I'd have to be close to the person I was taking under. It also isn't guaranteed to work on everyone. Some people are highly suggestible, some aren't."

"So I'm highly suggestible?" Selina accused.  
"You're like all us street kids. Always imagining a better world is out there somewhere. You still want to believe that this isn't the only life there is." Ivy looked annoyed. "You still have hope."

"You don't?" Selina asked.  
"The world is ugly." Ivy said bitterly. "My father was a mean drunk who used to beat us. But he didn't deserve to be shot like a dog by the GCPD. My mother was maniacally depressed most of her life. She slit her wrists open and left me an orphan. I had to sleep in filthy shelters and over crowded foster homes. The streets were a relief. One thing I learned, there is no humanity left in the world. No one is coming to save you."

"So what is your plan?" Selina asked. "Are you going to take out your anger on all of Gotham?"

Ivy looked wistful and Selina felt something unpleasant turn over inside her.

~ "She goes by the nick name Cat." Bruce said to the homeless woman. He held up the only recent picture he had of Selina. The photo from the dinner party that Vicki had taken all those months ago. "Have you seen her around lately?"

"I know Cat." The lady said with a grin full of rotted out teeth. "She used to hang out here all the time. Always came to see Mary when things were really bad. But I haven't seen Cat in months."

"Mary?" Bruce asked. "Who's Mary?"

"Blind woman who lives in the basement apartment about a block away. Cat used to live with her and take care of her." the old woman said.

Bruce fished in his pocket and pulled out some cash.  
"Go get something to eat." he ordered the old lady who nodded happily.

~ The basement apartments were practically hidden from view in this dying neighborhood. Bruce had to look had for the apartment number the old lady had pointed out. He almost missed it due to the overgrowth of weeds and other plants growing unchecked around the door and window. Some plants were even breaking into the brick and mortar to tear the building apart.

He knocked on a steel door and listened for movement inside.

"Who is it?" a raspy voice called.  
"I'm a friend of Cat. Selina Kyle?" Bruce called out.  
"Go away!" the voice shouted.

"Miss, please!" Bruce called out. He could sense that he was being watched. No doubt the locals had spotted him in his well tailored clothes giving money to the old woman and they were looking to rob him.

"Go away!" the woman called out again.

"Cat's in trouble." Bruce said. "I think people have taken her. Bad people."

He waited a second and finally heard the turn of a lock. He could see nothing inside the dark apartment. The smell of dampness wafted out. The old blind woman inside was like a witch from a fairy tale inviting him in.

~ Mary Tapian was her name. She was born blind and had lived in this very apartment for over forty years.

"Cat came to me when she was just ten years old. Running away from some street thugs who were after her. I hid her here many times, but she hasn't been by in over a year now." Mary said.

Bruce looked around the basement and felt a keen sadness for the old woman. This was no place to call home. A run down kitchen. A sitting room that served as a bedroom with a little cot in front of a wood burning stove. There was a little door at the far end Bruce suspected was a bathroom.

"Does anyone come to look in on you, Miss Tapian?" Bruce asked.  
"I do fine." Mary said. "I go down to the bodega every week for my canned goods. Welfare takes care of my expenses just fine. It doesn't take much for an old woman like me to stay alive."

Bruce had to disagree. This woman must have a very sad existence.

"When Cat was here, did she have any enemies? People who wanted to do her harm?" Bruce asked.

"Cat lived on the street, son. Lots of people wanted to do a pretty girl like that harm. If it wasn't the gangs, it was the pimps. Cat had it rough, but she kept herself out of that mess." Mary said proudly. "She used to come here, sleep on the couch and read to me on the rainy days. She was a good girl."

Bruce nodded.  
"Since you asked." Mary said sadly. "A couple of women came here looking for her just last month. They sounded like a mother and daughter. They talked just the same."

"Talked the same?" Bruce asked.  
"Oh yes. Very classy and smug. " Mary shrugged. "They wore nice perfume and their shoes made noises all across the floor. Asked if I had seen Cat and where was she."

"Would you know them if you heard them again?" Bruce asked.  
"No need to hear them again." Mary chuckled. "They introduced themselves right proper. Said their names were Ivy Pepper and Fish Moony."

~ Bruce left Mary with some cash money. All the singles he had on him and left. He could feel the street thugs watching him from afar as he spotted Alfred pulling up beside him.

"Wish you wouldn't go on these little field trips, sir." Alfred said. Bruce pulled open the door to the back seat and got in. Alfred quickly sped away.  
"Thank you, Alfred." Bruce said happily. "I was being followed. It would have been an unfortunate situation if they attacked me." Bruce seemed to mull over his statement. "For them I mean." he amended.

~ Back home, Bruce was quick to research all he know about Fish Moony and Ivy Pepper.  
"According to Gordon's records, Fish went missing a few years ago. No one has seen or heard form her in years. Although there has been rumors." Bruce explained to Alfred. The old butler had brought lunch down to the bunker next to the large computer Bruce was working on.

"This is the last time I bring the tea down here to you, master Bruce." he said setting the silver tray down with a disapproving thud.

"Fish ran the club that Penguin now has as his front." Bruce said. "She was one of Don Falcone's right hands until, rumor has it, she betrayed him."

"Sounds like Penguin's mess if you ask me." Alfred grumbled.

"Ivy Pamela Pepper." Bruce said and looked over the long social services record of the strange little red haired girl he only half knew. "Her father was Mario Pepper. Shot and killed by detective Harvey Bullock in connection with the…" Bruce swallowed. "With the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne."

It never stopped being strange to read about his parents in police reports.

"Social services became involved after her mother's suicide. Placed her in foster care. She ran away and lived on the streets. Went missing over a year ago."

"You think this Fish Moony and Ivy Pepper are working together?" Alfred asked.

"Gordon thinks they are working together. I think they have Selina." Bruce countered.

"How do we know Miss Kyle isn't a willingly apart of their escapade?" Alfred asked. A certain smugness in his voice.  
"We don't." Bruce admitted. "But I refuse to believe Selina is with someone like Fish willingly. She's always been a loner."

"Master Wayne, I know you've never wanted to accept the Miss Kyle is just as bad as those villains you have chosen to fight-" Alfred started to say.

"Selina isn't like that." Bruce interrupted.

"She's proven she is exactly like that." Alfred huffed.

"You just never liked her." Bruce accused.

"On the contrary." Alfred said soothingly. "I think Miss Kyle is good for you. But I don't hold onto any delusions about what kind of person she is."

Bruce felt his jaw clench.

"I should go on patrols tonight. There are several leads that have spotted Ivy Pepper and Fish Moony around the Narrows." he said.  
"Sir," Alfred tried to stop him.

"I'll be home late!" Bruce shouted.

~ Selina ran across the rooftops of the Narrows like a gazelle. She had always loved the running and jumping over sky lights and ledges. It was amazing how quickly she cleared the large gap from the abandoned apartment building to the bank. One large jump, a tuck and roll and she was safely on the roof top.

She had expected to see armed guards waiting for her, but with the rain, they would most likely be on the stair well where it was dry.

She turned on her night vision goggles and spied the dirty sky light that looked directly into the lobby of Old Gotham Prime.

It was a counting house for drugs and cash. Workers were wearing paper suits to prevent theft. Selina peered in closer and saw the weapons and armed thugs working for Penguin.

'_This is a bad idea_.' she reminded herself. She tried to think of a way out, but she knew Fish and Ivy would find her if she tried to escape. She knew they were watching her every move through the camera in her night vision.

"This is the only way in aside from the stairs and I'm sure it's guarded." Catwoman whispered to Ivy listening in on the line.

"The canister I gave you has a short burst. Use it on the rooftop guards." Ivy ordered.

"You never did tell me what this stuff does." Catwoman remixed her.  
"Don't worry about it, just put your gas mask on." Ivy said bitterly.

Catwaon secured her gas mask and slipped around the sky light to the far side of the roof top. Just as she suspected, the stairwell had two guards sitting out of the rain and smoking.

"Do it now!" Ivy ordered.

Selina was no fool. She hugged the shadows and was able sneak up right beside the guards without them seeing her.

No sooner had the noticed she was next to them then she sprayed them in the face with Ivy's smoke bomb. It was a short, powerful burt of liquid that came out like wasp spray.

The men gave out a short cry as Catwoman shot them in the eyes.

"Vey good." Ivy said in her ear.

Through the rain, with her info red goggles, Catwoam saw the work that Ivy thought was very good.

Large green leaves of plants were now growing out of the mouths and noses of the guards. Their necks bulging with the strange internal growth. Leaves were pushing the eye balls out of there sockets for more room to grow.

Selina felt nauseous at the sight of these men being smother and strangled from the inside out by the rapidly growing plants.

"It's killing them." Catwoman hissed at Ivy.  
"It's doing what it's supposed to." Ivy said darkly. "I call it a green solution. Their bodies are going to feed plant life. In just a few hours, nothing will remain of them but a beautiful blooming plant."

**Sorry it has been so long since I updated. Glad to see some feedback and reviews. Lets me know I'm on the right track.**


	8. Chapter 8

8.

~ Catwoman hung upside-down from a large support beam over the lobby. She ignored the rush of blood to her brain as she watched Penguin's employees counting money and bricks of drugs. She pulled on her support line and managed to right herself back up with ease.

"What now?" she hissed into the listing device. Her info red goggles no doubt telling Ivy and Fish she was inside.

"The Bat should be here soon." Ivy said.

"How will he even know I'm here?" Catwoman asked. "I didn't set off any alarms."  
"We've already taken care of that." Ivy told her.  
"How?" Catwoman demanded.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

Catwoman gripped tightly to the cord holding her suspended in the air. No one noticed she was there yet. Sooner or later, someone would to look up and she would either have to drop the canister of Ivy's deadly plant gas, or flee.

'_Can't fight and cant escape_.' she told herself. Wherever she went, Ivy would find her and use that strange mind control gas to make her commit suicide. Or worse, the plant gas that would turn her into a shrub. She had to think of a plan.

Catwoman pulled herself up to a support beam and stayed out of sight. The shadows her only protection.

~ '_Too easy_.' Batman thought as a local dealer went down without a fight. He wasn't the usual type to sell drugs in the Narrows. He was an older man who looked like he had been living on the streets too long.

"Who's your boss?" Batman asked as soon as the dealer hit the pavement and didn't get back up again.

The old man rolled over, whimpering and showed Batman a mouth full of rotted teeth.

"Don't know." he said miserably. There was no fight in him at all. "He's at the Old Gotham Prime."

Batman looked over the man. Normally, the dealers employed teenagers to sell their product. Not an old timer like this guy. It was strange and he felt a narrow blade of suspicion ripple down his spine.

The old man, homeless by the look of him, fell back on the pavement and refused to move. He made no attempt at all to escape, only cower.

Batman was quick to leave poor soul. Old Gotham Prime was a disused bank not far from here. He could easily climb up to one of the buildings close by and take it from the roof. With swift movements, he shot a grappling hook up the side of the building and let it pull his entire body weight to the top. The sensation of shooting to the top of the building was liberating, and he reached the roof in seconds. His feet landing lightly on the ledge and never losing balance.

~ Barney lay trembling on the sidewalk. That asshole in the black motorcycle helmet had scared him at first. But he stuck to the plan. Told the menace what he wanted to know. Or at least what the girl had said.

"Very good, Barney." came a soothing voice from the shadows.

Barney turned and saw the elegant form of Fish Moony emerge from an abandoned shop.  
"I told him." Barney whimpered. "I told him Old Gotham Prime."

"I heard." Fish said. Her voice was kind and benevolent. "I'm very proud of you."

"You have my money? Like you said?" Barney asked hopefully. Once he had money, he could go back home to his wife and son. His boy was only three years old. Still plenty of time to make it all up to him. All the years of drinking and gambling could be made right. He hadn't seen his young son or his wife in over thirty years now. He missed them.  
"Of course." Fish said sweetly.

At first, Barney thought she was spraying him with musk. Something to make him smell nice for when his wife took him back. Indeed, it did smell very nice at first, but then his throat started to close up and he started having trouble breathing. It felt like something was expanding, growing wild in his throat and he started hacking to free it.

To his own surprise, he realized something was shooting out of his mouth. He bit down to it, but that only made things worse. The plant oozing out a foul sour tasting liquid that burned his mouth. He felt pressure from his nose and his eyes next. Something was bursting to come out of him. His head hurt, worse than any hangover he had ever had.

He whimpered slightly and tried to breath in. But the plant had a hold on him and stole all his breath. The last thing he saw was Fish smiling sweetly at him before his eye balls burst.

~ Catwoam saw him right away. Nothing could hide that form she remembered so well from the rooftops all those months ago.

The menace, the freak, the bat. It didn't matter what they called him, he was trouble and he would only get her killed.

She hugged the wall and watched him move silently across the support beams of the bank.

'_He honestly thinks he's helping_.' Catwoman thought with a half gleeful delight. 'T_he fool._'

It occurred to her that she could warn him. Maybe she could signal to him someway and they could escape together. She could tell him all about Ivy and Fish.

'_No_.' she reminded herself. Ivy would find her. Ivy knew all her connections. All her hiding places. Besides, what was to stop Ivy and Fish from using that plant spray on her? Or even all of Gotham? This one freak show in a helmet couldn't stop them. Fish and Ivy had more connections. Once Penguin was taken out, it was game over.

She watched as the freak kept to the shadows and didn't even notice her. His interests were totally absorbed on the workings below.

~ Batman knew something was wrong. There was no guards on the roof level. A strange little garden growing out of the shingles, but no guards. Why would there be such a large cash of weapons and drugs and no guards to protect it from the roof?

He searched for all means of escape and found just the large metal door that was heavily protected by armed men.

This was what he had been looking for. Such a find had to lead back to Penguin and the Red Triangle Gang. There was enough evidence here to put them away for life. And yet, it bothered him that it just fell into his lap like this. Why wasn't it better protected? Why wasn't it a better kept secret?

'_It's a trap_.' he thought to himself.

He cringed and hid in the shadows deeper. His night vision scanning every hidden part of the bank.

'_Leave now_. _Report it to Gordon_.' he thought to himself.

He didn't like that idea.

'_Can I even trust Gordon? Harold had his name in connection with Penguin. How do I know Gordon isn't going to cover this up?_'

Batman made up his mind that he would settle this once and for all. This was his find, his take down.

With an easy toss, he shot a boomerang like deceive to the doors. The older doors were metal and sealed tightly shut with the electronic magnate he tossed at it. Now no one could get in or out except through the roof.

The guards barely noticed and didn't have time to react before Batman shot out the lights.

~ '_Do it now_.' Catwoman told herself. Her hands gripped tightly to the canister. She couldn't make herself do it. Couldn't bring herself to throw it into the lobby and kill the people there.

"Selina!" Ivy cackled from the radio line. "He's in. Now!"

Catwoman gripped the canister tighter and instead watched the show of the menace tackling security.

It was impressive to watch. The freak moved quickly and fought with a certain abandonment. When he was hit, it was like he didn't even feel it. She had to admire how the freak wasn't afraid to draw blood. Even though his opponents had guns, the freak fought them hand to hand and still beat them.

To her shock, she watched the freak put the last of Penguin's men in a sleeper hold and let him drop.

The workers in the paper suits had fled to a corner in all the confusion. All of them huddled away from the freak who was breathing had from the fight.

~ "Selina!" Ivy shouted into the mic.

"Don't tell me your cat is off the leash." Fish said angrily.

"She's not responding." Ivy told her.

Fish drove her fancy car around the block towards Gotham Prime.

"You disappoint me Ivy." Fish said. "That girl had one job. Now, I have to do the work for both of you."

~ Batman focused all his energy on his environment. The workers were in the corner. Their hands on their head. Afraid he was here to kill them. There was something else here to. Something he couldn't shake. He had been set up. He knew it. He could feel he was being watched by someone else. Someone who wasn't afraid of him.

"Come out." he demanded sharply. "What is it you want?"

Like a well practiced magic trick, a black line fell from the rafters and a slight, athletic figure gracefully slipped down with ease. Her feet touching the floor on tiptoe like a well practiced dancer.

Batman didn't need to look past the gas mask to know who she was. He knew that body anywhere.

He watched in horror as Selina held up a smoke bomb like a shield.

"Know what this is?" she asked. Her trembling voice muffled by the gas mask.

Batman said nothing.  
"It's not smoke, I can promise you." she teased.

Batman said nothing.

"It will kill everyone here, and won't even leave a body behind. That helmet won't save you. I'm not even sure this gas mask can save me." she said.

"Why are you doing this?" Batman demanded.

"I'm not doing this. Believe it or not, I'm not the enemy." Selina said. "I want your protection from the psycho bitch that made this."

"How do I know you don't work for Penguin?" Batman asked.

"Because Penguin can't create a weapon like this. If you protect me, I can show you who did. They want to kill you." she said quickly.

Batman looked her over. Her grasp on the smoke bomb reminded him of a cat playing with a mouse.

"I don't believe you." he said. "You're a criminal."

"Yes, I am. But I'm not the one setting a trap for you." she said. "You have no idea what they can do. What kind of weapons she can make. She could kill everyone in the city if she's not stopped."

"She?" Batman asked.  
"Yes. Get me out of here and I can take you to her. I'm dead if you don't. I was ordered to kill you, and unless we leave now, they will come to finish the job." she told him. Her voice was firm and in control.

Batman could see Selina's eyes through the gas mask. He wanted to believe her. Wanted to trust her.

Suddenly, the darkness of the bank was flooded with light. A bright light shone through the windows and Batman saw Selina's eyes widen.

"Run!" she shouted and tried to climb up the rope she used to come down.

Batman knew she wouldn't make it in time. Whatever was coming, whatever was behind the light, he knew there wasn't much time left.

He raced to her, his arm starching out to grab her and his free hand going to the belt for a secondary grappling hook. With a noise like a gun shot, he fired at a rafter and immediately felt his body pull up just as he grabbed hold of Selina.

She cried out in shock at losing her footing and her arms went instinctively round his neck as they left the ground behind them.

Batman barely had time to land on the support beam before the doors to the bank blew open.

**I got a comment about the plot that Selina could actually flee from Ivy now that she wasn't under the drugs anymore. And what was keeping her with Ivy and Fish. I agree that it might seem odd and my only answer would be Selina is afraid of Ivy or Fish coming to get her. I guess she's afraid of what those drugs can make her do. **


	9. Chapter 9

9.

~ Catwoman held tight to the freak as soon as her feet left the ground. She wasn't sure what kind of mechanism was pulling them both up, but it was like flying. The freak delivering them both safely to the support beam above the lobby. She didn't even look back to see the door being blown open.

Catwoman held her balance while the freak, in a show of raw nerve, took the canister from her.

"Careful with that!" she hissed at him. "You saw what it did to the guards on the roof."

"No, but lets talk about that when we're in the clear." the freak said in a gruff voice.

Catwoman shifted away from his embrace. His arms were like iron and held her in a way she didn't realize men should hold a woman. Her heart was beating fast, and it wasn't just the excitement of the situation.

The freak was ignoring her, however. His gaze focused on the intruders who had entered the bank. Fish and Ivy emerged from the smoke. Ivy still holding the high tech bazooka that had blown the doors.

They were looking for her.

Instead, all they got was a bunch of scared workers and beaten up guards.

"The red head. Her name is Ivy Pepper." Catwoman whispered to the freak from their hiding spot in the shadows. He had pulled her closer to him. An act that signified he would protect her. "I've known her since we were kids. She's been making mind control chemicals in an old house outside of Gotham."

"Why were you with them?" the freak accused. His voice riddled with hostility.

"Did I not just say it was a mind control chemical? Ivy drugged me, kidnapped me from my home. If I tried to escape, they would have killed me or worse." she hissed.

"Worse?" the freak asked.

"Did you see what was left of those poor guys on the roof? Or are they a tree by now?" she asked.

She felt the freak's body tense slightly next to hers.

"How do I know this isn't apart of the deception?" he whispered.

"You don't. But I'm dead if they catch us, so lets get out of here." she whispered.

"If they are really as dangerous as you say, we can't let them get away." the freak told her. He removed a pair of simple black handcuffs from inside his black leather jacket.

"You're going to arrest them?" she teased.

"These aren't for them." he said.

Without making a sound, he had managed to subdue her. His body was powerful and he knew all about pressure points to keep her from fighting back.

Before she could even fight back in any meaningful way, she was cuffed to an iron pole neat the exit.

"What are you doing? I can help you!" Selina whispered.

"I can't take the chance you aren't here to double cross me." the freak said. "You'll be safer out of the way here."

The freak stood next to her, his body closer to her than she normally liked from a strange man dressed in black. For and irrational moment, she thought he would take off his helmet and revel who he was. Instead, he raised a hand to her. Selina flinched away. She was all too used to being hit. But his touch was gentle. His gloved hands securing the gas mask she still wore onto her face better. Making sure the seal was tight on her skin.  
"Just in case." he said in a gentle tone.

"Don't get too close to Ivy. She has the mind control serum in a spray. She can make you do anything." Selina called out. She had to do something to help him. "She's dangerous."

"So am I." the freak said before he jumped, fifty feet, to the lobby below.

~ Fish and Ivy never heard Batman when he hit the floor. Too much smoke from the blast, too much confusion and noise. All were tools he used to as weapons.

"Where is that little bitch!" Fish growled. "Can't even do one thing right."

"We were outside." Ivy Pepper said. "She hasn't come out yet."

Batman decided Fish was more deadly than Ivy. Fish was older and experience in any street fight won the day. Fox had given him a new toy that worked much like a stun gun. A small pin knife that barely pierced the skin and then tasered the suspect into submission. A neat, and silent weapon from Wayne enterprises.

Fish cried out at the seemingly unknown attack and fell to the floor. Ivy, sensing something was wrong, immediately fired the high tech bazooka at the shadows. It bladed another hole in the wall near the still frightened workers. Dust flew everywhere and in the confusion, the workers ran free via the new escape rout.

"Oh, you're here, aren't you?" Ivy called out.

Batman hid from her. The darkness, dust and even the light hiding him from his enemy. He looked over Ivy Pepper. She was different now. Her once stringy, dull red hair shone like fire and she had defiantly hit an impressive growth spurt since he saw her last. She was dressed in high end clothing and looked like she belonged in a fashion show. Not holding a deadly weapon and hunting in crime ally.

"Why don't you come on out? We can talk like civilized adults?" she cooed.

Batman watched her and tried to think of how to take her out. She was trigger happy, which was useful, but she was also smart. He could see it in her eyes that there was a spark of intelligence there.

"They call you Batman. Isn't that funny?" Ivy sang out to the shadows. "All of Penguin's little soldiers you rough up each night. They think you're like a bat."

Batman watched as Ivy roamed the lobby with the bazooka in hand. If he tried to take her out, she might fire again. There were no more hostages, but Selina was cuffed in the wings and another heavy blast might be enough to bring the old building down. It was already creaking from the two holes in the wall already. No, he had to get her and that weapon clear from the building.  
"I said come out!" Ivy shouted.

He could taser her like Fish who was still groaning on the floor.  
"Alright." Ivy sighed. "I'm over this little game of hide and seek. The GCPD will be here soon with all these explosions, and I can wait another day for you."

Batman watched as she turned to Fish Moony.  
"Sorry about this. It's been real, but I'm not doing hard time for you." Ivy said.

Batman watched her drop a smoke bomb onto the floor and quickly vacuum sealed his helmet. He could feel the suction around his face and the air processors keeping the toxins away from him.

If Selina was telling the truth, Ivy just poisoned herself. The smoke went from white to green in a matter of seconds and Fish gave out a gurgled cry of pain. Batman watched from the shadows and hoped Selina's gas make would hold up to the poison in the air.

He saw Ivy through the smoke and was shocked she was still standing. Her breathing was easy as the smoke clung to her body and hair like the vines of a deadly plant.

Fish didn't fare as well. Her body was rapidly decomposing from the gas. Green leaves fighting their way out of her mouth, nose and ears. Finally her eyes. The eye patch pulled free from her lifeless face was now cradled by a red flower.

In a cruel bit of irony, Ivy plucked the rose like bud that had grown from Fish's bad eye and put it in her hair.

"Hate to leave, but I don't want to stay." Ivy sang out.

Batman had to remain calm as a warning light flash on the inside of his helmet. The gas was still potent and wouldn't protect him much longer.

'_Selina!_' he remembered.

With a graceful flick of the wrist, he shot a boomerang deceive at Ivy with an electric line. This worked like the taser dart, only it securely prevented her escape as it wrapped her tightly in it's snake like grasp.

He shot his last grappling hook into a nearby support beam and his body lifted up like a bird in flight.

'_Or a bat_.' he thought bitterly.

Selina was still standing when he reached her. Her eyes large with fear.

"She killed Fish." she was in a panic. Her view from the rafters meant she had seen everything.

"The GCPD is on it's way." Batman told her. "We have to leave."

He quickly unlocked the cuffs and pulled her away from the gas and up to the roof.

~ Selina pulled off the gas mask and tasted the beautiful fresh air of the night. Even the horrible river next to Arkham Asylum smelled wonderful just now.

"Down here." the freak ordered.

Selina didn't question, she just followed him down a rickety fire escape. His movements were fast and purposeful. She jumped ahead of him, and he quickly caught up with a leap down below. It was like some kind of dance they were both doing. She did a hand stand on a ledge just below the street level, her feet in the air, her head pointed downward as he swooped past her.

A part of her wanting to show off for this masked man.

He was waiting for her when she finally dropped next to him.

"Lovely." he said curtly and she took it as a compliment.

"This way." he ordered and they fled into the darkness as GCPD lights rang out though the streets.

"Are you sure Ivy can't get away?" Selina asked as reached a darkened ally.

"The police would have gotten to her by now. Are you really that afraid of her?" the freak asked.

"She has a real nasty side." she assured him.

They slowed down when they reached a black, late model economy car.  
"Get in." he ordered.

She almost laughed.

"Problem?" the freak asked. A cop car rushed past the dark ally they were standing in.  
"No problem." she said with a shrug. "Just pictured you having a nicer car."

Even with the helmet on, she could tell her dark savior didn't like that comment.

"Just get in." he ordered.

~ Batman wasn't sure he could trust Selina. Bruce Wayne trusted Selina. But that was a different man right now. He knew she wouldn't hurt Bruce. But she would certainly double cross his alter ego.

Her comment on the car hadn't eased relations with her either.

"I take it back." Selina breathed as the night vision HUD display lit up the windshield.

"Appearances are deceiving." he said.

He could tell by the way she looked over the high end tech in the console she was impressed.  
"So what are you?" she asked as he drove them safely out of crime ally. His computer telling him what streets to avoid as the GCPD was closing in on them.

"Former special forces? An ex cop?" she asked. "You can defend yourself better than any street fighter I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of street fights."

"I'm no one." Batman said simply.  
"Well, Mr. No One." she said with her classic sarcasm. "You can let me off here. I'll find my own way back to Gotham."  
"Not so fast." Batman growled. "You have to show me Ivy's lab. Where she works to makes the poison. It has to be destroyed. Her notes to."

"Won't the DA need that to prosecute?" Selina asked.

"If this toxin and the mind control drug falls into the wrong hands, think of the damage that could do." Batman said.

Selina nodded.

"It's over the bridge. Just keep driving north." she said.

Batman sped up. His deceptively fast economy car passing everyone over the bridge.

"Why didn't the toxin kill Ivy do you think?" Selina asked after a few moments of silence.

Batman had been waiting for her to ask him more questions about himself. Who he was, why he was fighting the scum of Gotham.

"Immunity." he said. "It would make sense if she developed the toxin that she had the sense to build up a resistance to it first."

"A vaccine to the toxin." Selina whispered. "Maybe even for the mind control to."


	10. Chapter 10

10.

~ "Over here." Selina guided them to the house. "Be careful, Fish lets dogs out."

No sooner had she said it, than Batman heard the low growling rumble of a pack of attack dogs coming to them.

Selina quickly ducked behind the car, but he was quicker. Another useful invention was the bear mace he kept in a small canister. A little went a long way with attack dogs. In seconds they were whimpering and retreating from the intruders.

"I hate dogs." Selina sighed.

~ Inside the house, Batman expected more traps, but it stood oddly empty.  
"How long were you kept here?" he demanded. His insects telling him to stay in the shadows of the house until it was safe.

"A few days." she said. "It's hard to remember exactly. They took me to Arkham first. Ivy had me tied to a hospital gurney to prove I could escape the place. Kind of a test to prove my skill sin breaking into and out of a place. Then she sprayed me with her little Simon Says mind drug and made me walk out a window. I almost fell into Gotham River."

Batman didn't miss the casual indifference in her voice. It was the well practiced wall of 'I don't give a shit' that Selina threw up whenever she was hurt or angry.

"Tell me about the effects of the mind control drug." he said. She seemed much more willing to explain things to him with his identity hidden.  
"It's a hallucinogen." Selina explained. "It's hard to describe unless you take it. I saw a bunch of freaky stuff when she dosed me. There's also memory loss." He followed her into a large green house that must be Ivy's lab.

"How long did it last?" he asked.

"I don't know." Selina said.

She pulled free Ivy's laptop and handed it to him.

"I think most of her notes are on here." she said helpfully.  
"We have to burn the house down." he said. "No one can follow her research."

"You sure know how to have a good time." Selina said with an almost flirtatious smile. "Look, I've helped you, so after we set the fire, you drop me off in Gotham City Square and we never cross paths again."

"Unless you're lying about being kidnapped." Batman accused. "Why would they want you in the first place?"

"They needed someone to break into Old Gotham Prime." Selina said. Her feeling obviously hurt he still didn't believe her. "I was perfect because I have the skills and I'm expendable to Fish and Ivy."

"And they wanted to take down Gotham Prime because?" Batman asked.  
"To hurt Penguin and to draw you out." Selina snapped. "You're one man show is making life very difficult for people in the Narrows."

Batman studied her face for a long time. It was strange how honest she was with him when she thought he was someone else.

~ Gordon had to take a moment to piece together everything he was seeing. Old Gotham Prime was half blown to hell. Fish Moony's friend Iy Pepper lay practically hogtied next to a high end weapon normally used during SWAT raids. Fish was nowhere to be found and there was enough drugs, money and guns to have the DEA shut down all of the Narrows.

"Looks like Christmas." Harvey Dent said happily. "Someone just made my year."

"Yeah, because someone did all the work for you." Gordon said bitterly.

"Ivy Pamela Pepper." Dent said and pointed to the red head girl the paramedics were checking out. She was handcuffed and unable to hurt anyone, but the look on her face was pure evil.

"I know all about her." Gordon said. He still recalled when Ivy was a scared little girl. The day Bullock shot and killed her father.  
"Well, fill me in because I don't see how a girl who's on the deans list at Gotham University is here in the Narrows. How was she working for Fish and where the hell is Fish anyway?" Bullock demanded.

"Those are all good questions." Gordon said thoughtfully. "She's being taken downtown, why not ask her there?"

The whole of the Narrows was being flushed out now. Federal agents were arriving with the large drug find. In just a few hours, this place would turn into an occupied country.

~ "I thought you said we had to destroy everything." Selina reminded him.

Batman was collecting the canisters from of Ivy's lab. All of them looking innocent enough, but he knew from the display earlier that evening, they were all deadly.

"I need to study these." he told her.

"What about falling into the hands of the wrong person?" she asked.

"I don't intend to kill people with them. If Ivy vaccinated herself against the gas that killed Fish, I need to find out how." he said.

"You can do that?" Selina asked. "One man army?"

"Something like that." he said.

"After this I'm done, okay? I don't like being here." Selina told him and picked up a small box with a bio hazard warning on the label.

"Wait!" Batman shouted. He had been looking for just such a trap. His helmet sealed against any airborne contaminates. Selina wasn't so prepared. He had told her not to touch anything, but he should have known she wouldn't listen.

A green puff of smoke hit her right in the face. A booby trap set by Ivy in case her lab was discovered.

She screamed and fell backwards, Batman catching her before she hit the floor.

~ Ivy Pepper sat in the dark interrogation room waiting to be interviewed. Behind the two way mirror, Dent and Gordon watched her sitting in silence.

"She certainly doesn't look like a criminal." Dent said for the hundredth time.

"Look, your case has already been made for you. Wrapped in a bow. It's a good arrest and our pictures will be in the papers." Gordon said.

"Right." Dent sighed. "Just hard to picture a girl like that working for Fish."  
"We've suspected her for some time. No evidence until now." Gordon said.  
"Did we ever find Fish Moony?" Dent asked.

"Nothing." Gordon said. "It's like she vanished."

"Maybe she can tell us." Dent said.

Gordon watched Ivy as Dent went into interview her. He was uneasy with how this evening had played out so far. He suspected the masked man was behind it. The Freak Show, the Menace, the Bat. It was going to be a long night.

He had been so lost in his thoughts about the freak and his possible involvement in tonights events, he almost missed Ivy standing up and kissing Harvey Dent on the lips.

"I know you can help me." Ivy said in a sweet girlie voice. Gordon's hand went to the holster of his gun. It was just a kiss, but it made him uneasy.

"Help you." Dent said. his voice slightly confused.

"You can help me." Ivy said encouragingly. "Make them understand Fish had me as a hostage. She made me work for her."

"I can help you." Dent said after a few seconds.

"I know you want to help me." Ivy said in a more forceful tone. "Make them understand."

~ "I'm okay!" Selina said through gasping breath. Batman pulled her hands away from her face and saw her normally fair skin was slightly burned from the chemical.

"I'm alright." she said. There was no evidence of plants growing from her mouth or eyes. He looked over her face more carefully to make sure the smoke hadn't hurt her eyes.

"Let me up!" Selina demanded. "I'm fine."

Batman realized the two off them must look like the cover of a very strange romance novel just now. She was in his arms after her fall, the black helmet, both of them breathing hard from the excitement. No wonder Selina wanted to be let go.

She pushed him away and managed to right herself.

"I'll take you to the hospital." he told her.

She shook her head.  
"No, no doctors. You can take me to Gotham City Square like you promised, Freak." she told him.

It didn't take long for him to collect all he needed and leave.

"I thought you were burning down the house." Selina questioned when he started his car remotely. She had helped him pack the truck, already stocked with weapons galore, with Ivy's mixture and laptop.

"I am." Batman said.

With the same remote, Batman activated the RPG inside the hood. It popped out neatly from it's hidden position and targeted the old house.

"What the hell?" Selina gasped and stepped away.

"Not bad for an economy car." Batman told her.

The twin missiles fired and hit the house with a very satisfying explosion. The fire that resulted would successfully destroy the house in a matter of minutes.

"Gotham City Square?" Batman said.

Selina, still in shock from the display of weaponry in the car only nodded.

"Yeah." she said at last.

"I think you need to go to a hospital. We don't know what that was that sprayed you." he said.  
"I thought that's what you were going to investigate." Selina said dryly. Batman recognized the all to syndical wit coming back to her. "Ivy's drugs were all fast acting. If it was something bad, it would have killed me by now."

"We don't know that." Batman said as they both got back into the car.

Selina gave him a hard look.

"Just drop me of at the City Square. Okay, freak?" she said hatefully.

~ Selina didn't look at the masked man on the ride back into the city. His entire body, head to toe was covered in some kind of body armor. The kind of thing she had only seen in science fiction movies. There was nothing about him she would ever be able to place. Not even his voice.

Gotham City Square was the hub of all tourists and traffic in Gotham. It was historic and full of bright lights and people at all hours of the day and night. The freak slowed to a stop and she was quick to part company with him without even a good bye.

She caught the reflection of the black car in one of the shop windows as she went inside. Part of her was glad to be rid of him, but mostly, she was thankful the nightmare was over.

She cleaned up in the bathroom of a small Chinese restaurant and noticed her skin looked slightly burned from the booby tray in Ivy's lab. It looked like she had been in the sun for too long.

'_Maybe it was a dud_.' she thought looking over her normally fair skin. '_Could have been a lot worse._'

She was about to leave the restaurant when she spotted the large TV in the dinning room. A news bulletin about a large drug bust in the Narrows and Ivy was being taken away in handcuffs. Gordon and Dent made a brief on camera interview and there was an eerie video of the old bank. Holes blown in the walls, rain falling over the broken facade. It looked like it belonged to the nightmares of a madman. Not a real place at all.

"Can I borrow your phone?" Selina asked the hostess. The lady behind the counter nodded and handed her an old fashioned rotary.

'_Stupid Hipsters_.' Selina thought as she painstakingly dialed a phone number she knew by heart.

He picked up on the second ring.  
"Bruce?" she said with a shaky breath. She was glad just to hear his voice again. His '_Hello_' was so casual and normal.

"Selina?" he said back. Worry written plainly in his tone. "Where are you? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I just… I had a rough night. Can I see you?" she asked pitifully.

"Sure, I just need to get my car. Where are you?"

"At a restaurant in Gotham City Square." she said. Her mood feeling lighter at the prospect of Bruce agreeing to come.

In all the world, there was nothing she wanted more than the comfort of a friend.


	11. Chapter 11

11.

~ Gotham City Square was teaming with people. Selina felt uncomfortable surrounded by the bright lights and strange faces. She quickly slipped into an alleyway and hid herself atop one of the fire escapes. She had always preferred to perch high up and watch things from afar. When she spotted an ivory colored luxury car park in the fire lane, she knew it was her white knight.

Bruce must have come from home because it had taken him a long time to arrive at Gotham City Square. He wandered around the hoards of people looking for her when she jumped down and managed to catch him off guard. She had always loved sneaking up on him.

"Sorry I'm late." he said breezily. "Traffic was a mess. They closed the bridge and there's a huge back up."

"Yeah, go figure." Selina laughed.

As soon as the shock wore off, he had her in a warm, comforting hug. Selina took a second to breath in the nice smell of aftershave that always clung to his coat.

"Want to tell me where you've been hiding for the past few days? You called my phone and it was really weird, then I go by your place and you're gone." he said once they were safely inside the Bentley he was driving.

Selina secured her seatbelt and sighed.  
"I really don't want to talk about it." she said after a long pause.

Bruce looked confused.  
"It's been a long night." she admitted.

"Do you want me to take you home?" he asked sympathetically.  
"No." she said quickly. "No, I don't want to go home."

"Alright."

"Can we just go back to your place? Hang out for a while? Watch old movies like we used to?" she asked.

Bruce pulled into traffic with ease. The Bentley was a pleasing cream color that stood out in a grey, dingy city. He smiled and nodded.

Selina relaxed back into the heated leather seats of his car. She relished the feel of being in Bruce's world again. A world where she was protected and pampered. A world she was always safe.

Even now, the rain didn't trouble her. Neither did the traffic. Bruce was a capable driver and the car shielded them both from the elements.

"I can ask Alfred to make duck in orange sauce." Bruce said as they drove past the closed bridge that lead to the Narrows.

Selina only smiled softly and closed her eyes.

~ She slept like the dead. Dreams didn't even find her, or of they did, they were fleeting and she remembered nothing. She woke up to Isis batting her softly on the nose. Playing with the breath she was pushing out in her sleep.

She had a hard time opening her eyes. It was too bright in this room. Her large south facing windows that overlooked the gardens of Wayne Manor.

She turned over and felt the softness of the high thread count sheets and the plushness of goose down feathers. She vaguely remembered Bruce picking her up and taking her home with him. Of the rain and the Freak blowing up Ivy's lab. What was Isis doing at Wayne Manor?

"Go away, cat." she whispered to the handsome black feline who just wanted attention.

She felt Bruce move beside her. His heavy arms wrapping around her hips and his breath tickling her ear as he kissed her good morning.

"He's been getting in somehow." Bruce whispered. "This house is so old, I'm sure he's found lots of old vents somewhere and has been coming and going as he pleases."

"How did he get here from my place?" she asked. She rolled over to see Bruce was half asleep. His normally combed hair was a delightful mess.

"When I couldn't find you, I brought him here. Alfred wasn't too happy. He hates cats." Bruce explained.

"You've been taking care of him?" Selina asked in surprise.

"Yes." Bruce said and closed his eyes. "It's still early, lets go back to sleep."

~ It was noon before Bruce woke up again. Selina was already gone from the bed, but the cat was still napping comfortably where she had been. That was proof she hadn't left Wayne Manor. He quickly went back to his old room and dressed for the day. Alfred, as always, was waiting to tell him of his disapproval.

"I see you didn't sleep in your own bed last night, Master Wayne." Alfred said in a stuffy voice. "I also see Miss Kyle is here for a visit."

"Nothing happened." Bruce said defensively. "We stayed up all night watch old movies. We just fell asleep in the same bed. That's all."

"It's not my business." Alfred said.  
"You're right, it's not." Bruce snapped. "Where is Selina anyway?"

"She went for a walk." Alfred said.  
Bruce nodded.  
"Before you go to join her, perhaps you should see the news." Alfred said.

The old butler looked fairly smug as he flipped on the local station. It was the ungodly gossip show. The one that had catty "reporters" talking about the latest in celebrity news. They sounded like a bunch of middle school girls.  
"Bruce Wayne was seen in Gotham City Square with another woman!" the reporter with the trendy hair style said.

Bruce felt queazy as a picture of him with his arm around Selina flashed on the screen.

"Several pictures of him with the mystery woman have turned up. Thank god for tourists with cell phone cameras! No world from Vicki Vale's camp on Bruce's new love interest. Bruce Wayne is turning into quite the playboy! It seems the rich can have it all."

"Vicki's not going to like this." Bruce said with a sigh. More pictures of him and Selina came on the screen. Bruce didn't know he could smile that wide. They looked for all the world to be the happiest of couples. Their heads were bent towards each other and they were smiling. No wonder the gossip show was having such a good day.  
"I didn't mean that news." Alfred said. His voice playfully innocent. Bruce was sure that was exactly what he meant.

The Butler quickly changed the channel to a pre-recorded news conference featuring Harvey Dent. Bruce scowled when he saw the mug shot of Ivy and the banner flashing under Dent.  
"The DA's office is releasing Miss Pepper today. After investigating the incident in the Narrows, we have determined she was a hostage of the fugitive Fish Moony. Miss Pepper will be working with my office to find her kidnapper and bring her to justice." Dent said.  
"Ivy's been freed?" Bruce said in disbelief. "How could that happen?"

"Dent found no evidence she was involved. What happened last night, sir?" Alfred asked.  
"The mind control." Bruce said quickly. "That's the only thing that makes sense. Ivy has some kind of mind control drug and she used it on Dent."

"Sir?" Alfred asked.  
"We have to get Selina out of Gotham." Bruce said. "Ivy has Dent under her thumb and she'll get her revenge on whoever betrayed her. I've got to warn her."

Alfred grabbed Bruce's arm.  
"And tell the lady _what_?" he demanded. "That you, Bruce Wayne, know all about Ivy and mind control drugs? She doesn't know about that side of you. She can't know."

Bruce had to take a second to realize that Alfred was right. If he told Selina now, she might figure out who he really was.  
"Fine." Bruce said. "We leave the news report on. Let her see it. I've meet Ivy before so it will seem natural I would have an interest. We have to tell Gordon what's going on with Dent."

"It might not hurt to have me apprised of things as well, sir." Alfred said.

~ Ivy was a little disgusted with the sight of her lab. Harvey Dent was waiting for her, his expression dumb and eager to please.

'_I'll run out of lipstick soon at the rate I have to keep kissing that fool_.' she thought to herself. The plant she derived her mind control spray and lipstick was gone now. She had to figure her research was lost to. Only Selina would have known where the house was. Wherever that crafty cat was, she would pay.

"Come along Harvey, Dear." Ivy sang out happily. Harvey smiled and, puppy like, followed her back to the car.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"We're going to visit another one of my friends. He's going to help us." she said.

Harvey nodded and got into the passenger seat of the white Rolls Royce.

"Did I do alright?" he asked. "At the press conference?"

"You did perfect." Ivy said and kissed him on the lips again. she saw the dug from her lipstick transfer on to him and his eyes glaze over slightly.  
Harvey nodded happily.

"Gordon's suspicious." he said.  
"Gordon is just a humble detective." Ivy said with a false sweetness. "You're the DA. It was your call to charge me and you saw that I was just a victim."

"You were a victim." Harvey repeated.

"Now let's go. We have work to do, and it looks like it's going to rain." Ivy said darkly.

~ It was raining. Not an uncommon thing for Gotham, but Bruce was worried. Selina hadn't come in from her walk and he knew she hated to be out when it was pouring.

"Are you sure she went out for a walk?" Bruce accused Alfred.  
"Of course." Alfred snapped back.

Bruce abandoned the safety of Wayne Manor for the storm outside. There was a pleasant hiking trail not far and he and Selina would both go there when they wanted to escape. The trail was muddy and dangerous now with the rain storm, but Bruce knew Selina would never leave her comfort zone of places to go.

He looked for her trade make black clothing, but the rain made things difficult.

Selina was sitting on a large rock when he finally found her. Her body soaking wet and shivering.

"Selina!" he shouted to her and she didn't respond. Bruce had to climb down a small hill and almost fell again before he reached her.  
"Selina." he said angrily. "It's pouring. Why didn't you come back in?"

He saw her face was red with a fever and her eyes were glazed.

"Bruce." she whimpered. "Somethings wrong."

Bruce felt his heart start to pound. Something really _was_ wrong. Her skin was hot to the touch and she was shivering. It wan't a cold from the summer storm either. Her eyes looked odd to. Like a film had descended over them to make her almost blind.

This had to be Ivy's work. The booby trap she had set. It must have been a delayed reaction. Selina could die at any second.

Without thinking, Bruce picked her up. His workouts and training had given him the upper body strength to lift her with ease.

Selina, oddly helpless, rested her head on his shoulder and curled her arms around his neck.

"I'm going to take you back to the house. Then we're going to the hospital." he whispered.

She nodded.

"I'm scared." she whispered.

He kissed her forehead and felt how burning hot she was.

"We'll fix it Selina. I promise." he swore.

**~ END ~ **

**DONT WORRY! This isn't the end. I just love making you suffer with a cliff hanger. Suffer! All of you Suffer! HA HA HA HA! BTW, how cute were little Bruce and Selina at that ball on Gotham last week? So sweet! I love them. It's why I'm not going to do any real sexy stuff yet. The actors are just kids and it's a little odd for me. I'll wait till they're older. **


End file.
